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In dry, windswept regions of Argentina, you will find the fresh, aromatic white wines coming produced from grapes term as Torrontés. There are three varities of Torrontés that exist:

• Torrontés Riojano: light, fragrant, high natural acidity, pale grapes
• Torrontés Sanjuanino: similar to Riojano
• Torrontés Mendocino: darker, smaller, tighter, yellow grapes

Broquel Torrontés has received much recognition as Argentina’s flagship wine. Founded by Trapiche, an Argentina wine exporter, Broquel has cultivated some of the best grapes in the Mendoza vinyards. All grapes are sorted, crushed and fermented by hand to retain its flavors.

Torrontés grapes grow in the Andes which is between 900 – 1,200 metres in elevation. Broquel wines are settled and aged in French and American barrels for approximately 15 months before distribution.

Broquel wines pair nicely with seafood. It has full body with a crisp, dry and gentle after taste. I, personally, tasted flavors of oak, pepper and terrain; however, it is said that Broquel Torrontés should exhibit aromas of honey, cinnamon, red apples and thymes. Really?

My friend who works at a premium wine company tells me that we should make our own opinion about the wines we taste.

Everyone’s palate is unique. There’s no right or wrong answer.

To my dismay, I did not enjoy the Perrier-Jouët as much as I would’ve liked to. Perhaps, I am just not a fan of champagne and chardonnays.

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The Perrier-Jouët La Belle Epoque (known as Fleur de Champagne in the US) is considered one of the most romantic wines that radiates with ravishing fragrances and bottled in carefully hand-crafted glass bottle. The champagne is composed of a blend of 50% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir and 5% Pinot Meunier. The “Flower Bottle” is famous fots is enameled artwork designed by Emile Gallé in 1902 who is now known for producing high quality glass artwork and a contributor to the art nouveau movement in France.

Perrier-Jouët was discovered by Pierre-Nicholas-Marie Perrier, a native in Epernay, in 1811 who owned 247 acres of vineyards in Ay and Dizy in Valle de Marne as well as Verzenay and Mailly in Montagne de Reims and Avize and Cramant in Cote des Blancs.

To differentiate his name from others, Pierre added his wife’s maiden name “Jouet” to the name. Thanks to his business minded son, Charles Perrier, Perrier-Jouët soon found its way to the tables and courts all over Europe. It even became one of the favorites of Queen Victoria and Edward VII in 1854. Perrier-Jouët is the first dry champagne ever released in the region and Charles Perrier was designated the Brut creator from then on. Highly adorned and praised by the Queen, a wine chateau in Avenue de Champagne was constructed in Epernay with the financial support of the Queen (which still exists today).

Unfortunately, after Charles Perrier, Michel Budin was the last successor of the Champagne house. Despite the successes of in the Perrier-Jouët era, many champagne houses at that time were subjected to complete takeover by investors and shareholders. The Mumm group in 1959 eventually took control of Perrier-Jouët with Michel Budin overseeing its production. Seagram then reigned the champagne in the 20-21st century, but in 2005, it was bought out by Allied Domecq Group and all productions are now overseen by Pernod Ricard.

(Info from the Wine Doctor, Luxury Insider, and Wikipedia).

To tell whether or not red wine is heavy-bodied you can look at the “legs”. Swirl your  glass slightly so that the liquid run along the side of the glass. Raise your glass towards the light and watch as the streaks (“legs”) of wine runs down the glass. Wines where the streaks that are distinctly visible and run down at a relatively slow speed are said to be heavy-bodied.

Bordeaux Wine Regions (from wikipedia)

I think it is important to note that the facts I have collected thus far come from AlexBespaloff’s book, published in 1971, which therefore, may or may not be completely accurate although most vineyards and regions should have maintained their standards as famous labels found in the book still exist today.

The wines found in the Bordeaux region are less complex compared to Burgundy wines. The most famous vineyards in the Bordeaux region are: Medoc, Graves, Sauternes, Saint Emilion and Pomerol..[to be continued]

Burgundy Wine Region (from westmeadewines)

Compared to wines from the Bordeaux region, Burgundy wines are so much more complicated in terms of the different regions and vineyards Burgunday wines can come from. Burgundy wines come from four main regions Cote d’Or, Cote Chalonnais, Maconnais and Beaujolais. Cote d’Or is made up of two regions known as Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune with a noteworthy region known as Nuits-Saint-George found in between the two. The amount of wine produced in Burgundy is almost equivalent to that of Bordeaux. An interesting fact to note about Burgundy wines is that the grapes in Burgundy are all grown on slopes as oppose to flat lands.

Classification of wines: Burgundy wines have mainly three classifications- village wines, premiere crus and grand crus.

[...post to be continued. I just wanted to make a note on how complicated Burgundy wines are compared to Bordeaux]

A month ago when I decided to write this blog, I thought I’d just write about the taste, recommendations and record the different types of wines I drink; however, upon, reading this book, I found that there’s actually a lot more than just drinking and tasting, although, Bespaloff suggests that, that is perhaps the best thing to do when it comes to tasting wine. I guess you could say that his book would somehow make you bias towards certain types of wines, but at the same time, his insights and studies assist you in choosing certain wines without being tricked into paying a high price for an unoriginal wine.

The word which comes up fairly often in his book is appellation controllee which means “controlled term of origin”. Who would’ve though that just because a wine says its from Bordeaux it doesn’t necessarily have to mean that the wine is from the region of Bordeaux. This is where appellation controllee comes into play. Going back to our original example of the Bordeaux wine, if the label on the bottle of wine reads appellation controllee it means that the wine is genuinely from the vineyards of Bordeaux. However, if the term does not exist on the label, it means that the wine was made from grapes of, possibly, other surrounding region’s vineyards such as Medoc, etc…

Well, I don’t want to overwhelm you with all the interesting facts I learned about the Bordeaux region; so I’ll just leave you with one new term for today. So next time you want to know if your French wine is from a genuine vineyard (especially if you are paying a high price for it), check the back of the label to see if Appellation Controllee is on there!

Campofiorin Supervenetian-Masi

The wines from the brand Masi are produced in the Venetian region of Italy….

I’ll have to delay the post of this entry, but since I found the brand, I thought I might as well make an entry for it, in case I won’t be able to find this brand again.

The Donini Merlot is a type of red wine produced in Delle Venezie, northeastern region of Italy. The Donini Merlot is full of dry, berry flavor and cultivates a semi-strong scent of spicy herbs. It is quite bitter much like the smell of earth with no hints of any sweetness. The bitterness of the wine seems to spur from the taste of coca and the herbs. Drinking this wine on a cold winter day reminds me of the smell of fresh, burnt wood against the crisp, cold air.

2006 Vendange Red Zinfandel

This is possibly one of the most tasteless wines I’ve ever had. For someone who is inexperienced at tasting wine, I do not doubt my thoughts on this one! A sniff of this red wine gave off an exuberant, deep, luscious smell of berries and herbs. A high expectation was quickly, however, wiped away from the first sip. It literally felt like I was drinking fire. The 2006 Vendange Red Zinfandel was spicy, sour, and extremely dry. The after taste was overly bland and left no lasting taste.

History of the Vendange Red Zinfandel
Vendange wines are made from a combination of various berries: raspberries, black berries and strawberries, as well as many herbs such as pepper and other spices. The dryness and spiciness can be associated with the combination of ingredients. It is definitely a full-bodied wine.

However, I find that the spices and herbs overpower the flavors of the berries and hides the genuine taste of the grapes itself. Vendange Red Zinfandel as a table wine? You might want to reconsider.

Vila Regia Duoruo 2008

First sip: All I can say is, it was quite spicy! I could feel a tingling sensation from the wine. However, the after-taste is quite refreshing and rejuvenating. It is a slightly drier wine; but, if paired with dinner, I think this wine would be a decent table wine.