Summary
Chile and Argentina both make great, weighty wines in excellent quality, and Portugal consistently produces excellent values, but South African reds and whites continued to surprise me in the quality-price ratio department. Racy, crisp whites like the Ayama Chenin Blanc (Paarl -- $12.53, available at Liquor Marts and beyond) do well with a wide variety of foods, while reds like the
Pink doesn't always mean sweet, and almost every dry rosé I tried brought loads of fruit without the sugary, one-dimensional characteristics of White Zinfandel. Dry rosés from Chile, especially those made from Cabernet Sauvignon, excelled in this category, with the Torreon de Paredes 2006 (Valle de Rengo -- around $11, available at private wine stores) offering deep colour and crisp strawberry jam and black cherry flavours, and the viscous Miguel Torres 2006 Santa Digna Reserve (Valle de Curicó -- $11.87, available at Liquor Marts and beyond) The runner-up in this category has to be the Pascual Toso 2005 Malbec (Mendoza, Argentina -- around $13, available at private wine stores). This is Argentina's flagship red grape, and this example brings a serious dollop of blackberry and toffee on the nose. The palate delivers ripe, rich black fruit, a hint of pepper, and a long, full finish.See the full content of this document
Extract
A Very Good Year
Both in taste and value, 2007 offered up plenty of pleasant surprises
Uncorked / By Ben MacPhee-SigurdsonPICKING my favourite wines of 2007 has been no easy task; having tripled the number of wines tasted last year, there were...See the full content of this document
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