{"id":2484,"date":"2015-12-29T22:34:41","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T13:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joewein.net\/blog\/?p=2484"},"modified":"2015-12-29T22:34:41","modified_gmt":"2015-12-29T13:34:41","slug":"torrontes-my-argentinian-love-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/2015\/12\/29\/torrontes-my-argentinian-love-affair\/","title":{"rendered":"Torront\u00e9s, my Argentinian love affair"},"content":{"rendered":"

My most memorable trip this year probably was the one to Buenos Aires, Argentina for an ICANN conference. Argentina was very interesting. Culturally, I found it far more Italian than Spanish despite the language spoken. There is a certain sadness about the place, because Buenos Aires clearly has seen better days. A hundred years ago the country had a higher per-capita income that many European nations and yet its history is one of missed opportunities and crushed dreams.<\/p>\n

While it’s clearly not a rich country and many people there are struggling, I was also impressed how people look after themselves. I saw relatively few overweight people (regardless of income levels) and the food was very nice. The local wines were inexpensive and excellent. I soon discovered Torront\u00e9s<\/a>, a local white grape variety that is similar to Gew\u00fcrztraminer and Muscat grapes. It’s very aromatic.<\/p>\n

Not long after returning from Argentina I found some Torrontes at the local Kaldi import shop near my home. During three subsequent U.S. trips I searched local wine shops for more examples for my modest collection. My latest favourite is Domingo Molina Hermanos Torrontes 2014:<\/p>\n

Brothers \u2013 we played soccer, we fought a lot, we generally caused trouble for our parents. But we Domingo Brothers (\u201cHermanos\u201d in Spanish) became the best of friends, and 50 years after our father and uncle opened a winery, we started one of our own on a hillside above Cafayate. We named the winery Domingo Molina \u2013 Domingo for our father\u2019s last name and Molina for our mother\u2019s. Over the decades, our family has located the best vineyard sites in Salta Province, all 5800 \u2013 7300 feet above sea level. This extreme altitude and 340 days of sun yield wines with intense aromas and soft tannins which are a pleasure to drink, especially with our brothers \u2013 Osvaldo, Gabriel & Rafael \u2013 the Hermanos de Domingo Molina.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Growing up with four brothers, this struck a note with me and I picked it up, along with two other bottles I have yet to try. Once I opened it, I just loved it. It compared well to the best Torront\u00e9s I had enjoyed in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

If you like whites and are looking for something beyond Chardonnay, give Torront\u00e9s a try. To me it was one of Argentina’s best kept secrets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My most memorable trip this year probably was the one to Buenos Aires, Argentina for an ICANN conference. Argentina was very interesting. Culturally, I found it far more Italian than Spanish despite the language spoken. There is a certain sadness … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-torrontes","category-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2486,"href":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484\/revisions\/2486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joewein.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}