P. 12 - LA PLAYA
MARCH / MARZO 2014
WWW.PLAYACOMMUNITY.COM
The Cellar Door - Corks and Torrontes
seen the contamination of many wine
corks with a chemical called TCA
(trichloroanisole).
This causes
“corked bottles” which often smell like
wet cardboard, old blankets and
other unappetizing flavors.
The
industry estimates that 3% - 5% of all
corks inserted in the roughly 20 billion
bottles of wine annually are bad.
Which works out to approximately
600 million to 1 billion bottles of bad
wine each year! To bring that to our
level as consumers, 1-2 bottles in
each case of 12 wines is bad. Sometimes the bottle is only slightly bad
and other times it can be undrinkable.
B
efore I share my notes about
the wines for this column, I
would like to discuss a confusing and somewhat controversial
subject: wine closures.
The use of cork to close a bottle of
wine dates to the mid 17th century.
Before that, wine was sealed with
everything from olive oil to rags to
wax. No one knows who developed
the method of harvesting the bark of
a cork tree, drying it, boiling it and
jamming it into a wine bottle. But one
thing is for sure: it worked pretty well
in its day. But cork decomposes over
time and also is subject to contamination, spoilage and a host of other
problems. The last few years has
Several alternative closures have
been developed including composite
cork, synthetic cork, class stoppers
and, of course, screw tops. Those of
us of a certain age remember the
negative connotation of “cheap
screwtop wine”. I have one thing to
say about that: “GET OVER IT!” That
was then and this is now! Ask
yourself, what is more important: a
good wine which, coincidentally, can
be easily opened or some outdated
sense of “romance and propriety”
which ends up with a bad wine?
By the way, most wine produced in
Australia and New Zealand are
sealed with screwtops. And they are
often very good. You’ll see more and
more quality wines from all around the
world with screwtops, including my 2
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By M. Stefan
recommendations in this column.
the mouth. Simple with a hot finish.
MENDED
Today’s wines are all Torrontes, a
grape mostly grown in Argentina. The
wines produced are mostly dry and
crisp, although I have seen some late
harvest sweet versions. They can
range from delicate to medium
bodied. They rarely are aged in any
oak.
I stand by my prediction:
Torrontes will be the new Pinot Grigio!
2012 Terrazas Riserva Torrontes
$15.65 13.5% alc. Argentina. Screwtop Full bodied. Floral hints with
complex flavors. A bit grassy but well
balanced. Other flavors of ginger,
apple and passion fruit. If you feel like
an unoaked or lighter chardonnay, try
this instead. Should go well with
pastas of all sorts, especially alfredo
or seafood pasta. HIGHLY RECOM-
M. Stefan has over 20 years experience in the wine trade and has
traveled extensively throughout the
wine producing regions of the world.
His column is a regular feature of La
Playa Community.
He can be
reached
at
[email protected]
and
appreciates your comments.
2011 Santa Julia Torrontes $7.50
13% alc. Argentina. Plastic cork
Fruity nose with flavors of pineapple,
honey and other fruit. Ultimately
simple with a hot finish.
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2012 Crios Torrontes $8.40 14%
alc. Argentina. Screwtop This lovely
fruity, dry wine is full of flavors of
peaches, apricots, lemon, muscat
grapes and a spicyness which comes
through in the finish. It also is
complex enough to have a bit of
earthiness. I recommend it for lighter
meats (turkey, ham, pork, chicken),
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2010 Sophenia Altosur Torrontes
$9.50 13.5% alc. Screwtop Grassy in
the nose with pleasant tropical fruit
flavors. Crisp and a bit tart.
2010 Zuccardi Seria A Torrontes
$10.00 13.5% alc. Screwtop Nose of
hay and grass. Grapefruit and oil in
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