At first very quiet, the flavors expand like a peacock. Increasingly fun and rich, it brings eucalyptus and mocha first, then crushed blackberries with a wave of soft round tannins. Complexity is layered into the mix with wet leather, rain, and tobacco. A little serious, a lot of Argentinian wine fun.
Andrew Will Winery offers up a classic Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec from this estate vineyard in Washington’s Yakima Valley.
A remarkably complex offering, this wine offers a myriad of textures: from the dense opulence of the attack, to the freshness of the midpalate, to the velvet tannin of the finish. The flavor profile is both sweet and savory.
Figs and cassis meld with coffee and campfire notes, along with a strong impression of Herbes de Provence. The midpalate brings in fresher red fruits, and serious oak-influenced flavors of chocolate and allspice. The finish rolls on and on, bringing more pleasure than anyone could expect from a glass of wine.
Malbec might get all the glory in Argentina, but a good torrontes, like this melon-y, springtime-in-a-bottle white, stands out by virtue of its easy, almost dangerous drinkability. But don’t fret: if you kill a bottle on your own before your guests arrive, you can pick up another one for just $7.99.
Last night the Wine School hosted a tasting of South American wines at the Senior Law Center. Over the course of the evening, we poured everything from the usual suspects (malbec, sauvignon blanc) to less-known varietals and blends (torrontes, syrah-bonarda), and what struck me most–what always strikes me about tastings that allow us to delve a bit deeper into a specific part of the world–was how rich and varied these wines can be.
Indeed, if you can get past the temptation to taste only what’s familiar, you will find your wine life enriched in ways you never thought possible. That syrah-bonarda, for example, tasted like nothing so much as superripe black fruit dipped in pepper and sipped while chewing Bazooka bubble gum–strange, sure, but also kind of delicious.
The point is this: Drink outside the box, delve into regions and varietals you may not be familiar with, expose yourself to the unusual. The rewards are tremendous.
Earlier this week, while we were enjoying that brief, sudden, sodden stint of surprisingly spring-y weather, I found myself craving a nice cool glass of white. So I started poking around my cellar, looking for who-knew-what, when I came across a Susana Balbo rose of Malbec I’d forgotten about. And though its strawberry fruit had shed some of its vibrancy, and though it was pouring outside, and though I felt like I had stepped into some strange off-season performance-art version of Eliot’s “Waste Land”–the cruelest month having arrived either far too early or far too late in the year–what I had in my hand was all I needed to make everything right with the world: A glassful of pink sunshine. Never underestimate the restorative powers of a glass of pink.
Epikur is a magazine about food and drink, with a focus on our hometown of Philadelphia.
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