I generally begin my wine shopping adventures in any number of places. I feel no need to head into the wilds of suburbia to pick up a bottle of cleverly rotted grapes that were grown on a fruit farm. I also have no need to ask the clerk at the store who is usually drinkin’ a Budweiser what he might recommend. I generally browse up and down the aisle until I find something that doesn’t sound totally goofy or until I find a label that just appeals to me on a given day. So, I can’t really tell you why I picked this Malbec. It comes in a green bottle and I generally think green is a pretty color. The label also has a nifty bird on the front of it and an amusing quote about how the vineyard seems to keep a condor on staff to guard the grapes from fruit poachers.
I’ve included the text from the label on the back of the bottle so you can enjoy part of my wine drinking experience with me. I did add an extra space on the label, as the company forgot to insert one after “Velvety texture.”
The Label on the Back of the Bottle-
“Trapiche Oak Cask is elaborated with grapes sourced from the foothills of The Andes Mountains, where the combination of the altitude and generous sunshine produces concentrated, aromatic fruit. The ageing in oak barrels during 12 months adds finesse, harmony, and complexity.
A Malbec with beautiful, deep red color with violet hues. Sweet aromas of blackberries and plums with an elegant touch of smoke and vanilla. Velvety texture and a sweet, long aftertaste. Ideal to serve with cheese and red meats, mushrooms, stew, and a traditional Argentinean ‘asado’.’”
I suppose that the wine’s appearance is a good place to start as the rear label seems to describe what the wine should look like. It is indeed dark red, but I’m not getting much violet. I’m seeing a pretty fuchsia or magenta color instead. Maybe the copywriter had different lights in their office than I have at my dining room wooden spool with plywood bolted to the top of it. I surely can’t smell a plum or a blackberry either. When I stick my nose in the glass I get a nice good whiff of alcohol. Damn. I rather enjoy blackberries too. The woods back behind my house get a mess of those in the summertime so I actually understand that comparison! I can’t seem to smell any smoke or vanilla either, however, when I take a sip of the wine, I totally get a nice smoke taste. It’s not as good as smoked bacon mind you, but that smoke flavor genuinely sticks to anything that was in an oak barrel. I also taste a bit of blackberry, but I’m still missing plums and vanilla.
The part of the label that bothers me most is the sentence that refers to the texture of the wine. Velvety? Really? As a bona fide Hillbilly, the only velvet I see on a regular basis is the velvet on my buddy’s bright orange psychedelic, authentic, vintage 70’s wing back upright chair. The chair is old, so the velvet is pulling away from the fabric weave in a number of places, but you can still find a few smooth spots here and there. But my wine doesn’t taste thick, or smooth. It does in fact taste wet. It doesn’t make my mouth feel instantly parched and it doesn’t make my lips do some queer involuntary pucker thing that some wines do. I’d put the texture of my wine in a similar category to grandmas sun brewed tea in fact. I’ve had to take a few sips of my wine to get a better grasp of its aftertaste. It’s not really a long aftertaste, but it is sweet. It’s like a good kiss— it knows when to stop.
I suppose I’m committing some addition wine crime in that Im not taking any of the food recommendations from the back of the bottle. But, I applaud the company for putting the ideas out there to help folks out so they don’t seem as dumb when they try to pick a good wine to go with their dinner. However, if you are like me and decide to serve your Trapiche Oak Cask with a spinach and dandelion salad, make sure you scrub the label off the back for your date, so they don’t think you picked the wrong bottle to go with the meal you prepared.
All in all, it’s definitely too high quality to pass around during church on Sunday. I would definitely ask for a second glass of this wine. I might even purchase another bottle to keep on the rack to share with company.
