Wine Tasting

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a wine tasting in Scottsdale at Tapino's . They were featuring Argentinian wines. A lovely young ( and very knowledgeable ) woman poured four wines for us. The first three were from the Pascual Toso vineyard in the Mendoza region. We tasted a bubbly (can't call it champagne, you see) a sparkling Brut 2004. Delicious and light- bought one bottle.

Then she poured a 2004 Chardonnay- which was buttery and not very oakey at all. I'm not a big fan of Chardonnay, but this one was smooth and quite tasty. Not tasty enough to buy, however. Her last two pours were reds- the first one was labelled Chakana Cabernet Sauvignon- which I thought was quite nice (fruity tastes: raspberries and cherries- very soft tannins) until I tasted the last pour for the evening. The "Il Felino" Malbec (Machirori Vineyard), was excellent, and clearly the winner of the evening. Superbly smooth with lots of cherry taste-very fruit forward- aged in part in American oak barrels, and in part in French oak barrels. Very tasty, but bought the Chakana- something about the value of the first one. The chef/owner of Tapino also provides especially made appetizers to go with the wines. Evening was complete with the company of a couple of girlfriends.



For those of you living in British Columbia- the Liquor Board sells two Toso wines: the 2004 Malbec and the 2004 Sauvignon Blanc- for around 12.00 per bottle. If they taste anything like the three Toso wines that we tasted, it's worth the trip to the liquor store. For those readers in the states, I'm sure your fine wine provider has heard of Toso. If not , then I have two bottles at home!!