Lo Tengo Torrontes (Argentina) Price: $8.99
Grade: B
Thanksgiving is a holiday that perfectly suits the enjoyment of wine. It traditionally offers a cornucopia of culinary delights ranging from turkey and vegetables to fruits and luscious desserts. Yet, given the gamut of food options, the choice of which wine to pair with dinner becomes more difficult. Unlike a more uniform meal that lends itself to a specific pairing, the Thanksgiving culinary spectrum demands a versatile wine that can match a wide range of foods.
Although wine selection is always a question of personal taste, in my opinion a Thanksgiving meal is better augmented by a white wine rather than a red. Chardonnay is a popular choice for Americans, but the grape's buttery, sour grape character is better for a seafood entree than for a Thanksgiving spread. The best white wine for the occasion should display a sweet floral character. The three best choices are Gewürztraminer, Riesling and Torrontes. My personal choice is for the Torrontes, which is an inexpensive and tasty selection from Argentina.
Argentina has garnered a reputation for being the new value market. Offering its signature grapes, Malbec and Torrontes, Argentina burst onto the scene in the 1980s to become a major player in the world of wine. Though it has mastered the cultivation of Torrontes, which was originally a French grape, Argentina is not nearly as strong as the other value markets of Australia and Spain. For one, Argentina is a big fan of using flood irrigation to combat its stifling and severe drought conditions. This technique literally includes flooding a vineyard to quickly nourish parched vines. The problem with this system is that it tends to produce unimpressive grapes. The best conditions for producing great-tasting grapes are those that allow the vine to struggle for its existence. Thinking it will soon shrivel and die, a distressed vine allocates more of its finite resources to creating a riper grape in the hopes that it can reproduce through the spreading of its digested seeds. Bordeaux, France and Rioja, Spain have ideal wine conditions because of their rocky, infertile soil composition, which makes vines struggle to survive.
Drought, however, is too severe to have a positive effect because it usually kills the vine quickly before it can produce better grapes. Flooding the vineyard encourages high yields (more grapes), but guarantees poor grape quality. Thus, most of Argentina's wine is cheap because of its high yielding flood techniques but is low quality. The other problem with Argentina is that its grapes, specifically Malbec, have mutated from the original French grafts in a way that makes them different, even negative in character. To meet Argentina's odd concoction of environmental factors, the grapes have developed thicker skins and different ripening patterns -- two realities that make the production of quality Argentine wine more difficult.
Torrontes is the exception to Argentina's problems. Unlike most other varietals, it thrives in hot drought conditions. The best Torrontes maker is Crios, which sells for about $14. Since I was unable to locate it in Charlottesville, though, I chose to rate a Lo Tengo bottle. Torrontes' signature taste displays wildflowers, which makes it perfect for a Thanksgiving meal. The Lo Tengo bottle is solid, but is not as impressive as a Crios one. The nose has powerful aromas of perfume, wildflowers, melon, honey, cantaloupe and honeydew. Small hints of lemon, lime, mango and an herbaceous (green leaf) character are also present. The palate displays the characteristics of a French Gewürztraminer with notes of flower blossoms, honey, vanilla wafer and roses.
Torrontes satisfies a wide range of tastes -- yet another reason why it is a good choice for the holidays. Use this relatively unknown grape to strike up conversation with friends and family. I hope you will agree there is no other wine for turkey but Torrontes. Happy Thanksgiving!
Jeff's column runs biweekly Wednesday. He can be reached at jkatra@cavalierdaily.com.
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