2011 Dona Paula Estate Torrontes

Tonight I have a special treat, a Snooth virtual tasting of wines from the Dona Paula Estate in Argentina!  I really have to offer a special word of appreciation and a hearty thank you to Snooth and Dona Paula Estate for providing me with some lovely samples to try this evening, the 2011 Torrontes and the 2011 Malbec (which I will review on a separate posting tomorrow)!  Now the interesting thing is that the Torrontes is a white wine, so I think this might actually be the first white wine review on my blog, and it's a special one given it's source, the Valle de Cafayate in Salta.  This is special to me since I have long dreamt of retiring in the Cafayate near Salta in Argentina, home of beautiful vineyards and lovely cattle ranches, and farms with ample beautiful and healthy produce to enjoy.  Great wine and great steak, what more could you want in retirement?

So back to the wine.  I am so out of my depth with white wines I had to look up on Google what sort of grape this is, and I found that it's native to Argentina and typically displays some smooth mouthfeel and mild acidity with aromatics of peach and apricot.  And sure enough, there are some lovely floral notes to this wine, and some earthy notes that just bring to mind riding on horseback through the mountains.  The taste is quite refreshing, mildly acidic, and displays wonderful notes of peach, citrus and some earth notes that are mildly metallic, a taste reminiscent of copper and rustic forest.  The finish is very nice and crisp, perfect for a summer afternoon, and very dry, a white wine that I could definitely get to know and like!

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 7.5, as I think it's such a pleasant departure from the usual, sweeter, citrus dominated white wines I've tried in the past.  It strikes me that this could be an ideal white wine for us red wine drinkers.  Although I'm just having this with some antipasti tonight, I could see this going very well with some bright Mexican dishes, fish tacos or some fresh salsa with carne asada and a squeeze of lime, or the traditional Argentine pairing with empanadas.  So yummy!