Sunday, October 31, 2004
Wineblogging: Latin Reds
I decided to go with fruit-forward red wines from Spanish-speaking countries this weekend. The first was from Spain, a 2002 Castillo de Monseran Garnacha (same thing as grenache in France). I brought this one over to the Ring Bearer's place on Friday night. It was a hot day, my car lacks air conditioning, and I had several errands to run en route. So I wrapped a wet towel around the bottle and hit the road. First to pick up a couple of delicious Mexican sandwiches (which went great with the wine), and then to pick up the Teacher. Once we got off the main roads, I grabbed the towel-wrapped bottle and held it out the car window. The quick evaporation has the benefit of refrigeration, and upon arrival at the Ring Bearer's, the wine was at a good cellar temperature of 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit. (I seem to recall reading about the technique in Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence.)
Saturday night, I had an inexpensive but incredible 2000 Terrazas Malbec. Malbec is a grape that never really took off in Europe, but seems to thrive in the mountains of Argentina. This had a lot of fruit flavor, but it wasn't sweet. It's hard to describe, but it was a clean and uncomplicated wine. No spice, tobacco, or smoky flavors. I drank with with a bowl of cheese tortellini. (This is one of your general pizza and burgers kind of wine, which means it will go with just about anything.)
I decided to go with fruit-forward red wines from Spanish-speaking countries this weekend. The first was from Spain, a 2002 Castillo de Monseran Garnacha (same thing as grenache in France). I brought this one over to the Ring Bearer's place on Friday night. It was a hot day, my car lacks air conditioning, and I had several errands to run en route. So I wrapped a wet towel around the bottle and hit the road. First to pick up a couple of delicious Mexican sandwiches (which went great with the wine), and then to pick up the Teacher. Once we got off the main roads, I grabbed the towel-wrapped bottle and held it out the car window. The quick evaporation has the benefit of refrigeration, and upon arrival at the Ring Bearer's, the wine was at a good cellar temperature of 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit. (I seem to recall reading about the technique in Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence.)
Saturday night, I had an inexpensive but incredible 2000 Terrazas Malbec. Malbec is a grape that never really took off in Europe, but seems to thrive in the mountains of Argentina. This had a lot of fruit flavor, but it wasn't sweet. It's hard to describe, but it was a clean and uncomplicated wine. No spice, tobacco, or smoky flavors. I drank with with a bowl of cheese tortellini. (This is one of your general pizza and burgers kind of wine, which means it will go with just about anything.)
