Monday, November 1, 2010

Toso Sparkling Malbec and a Closson Chase Chardonnay (Argentina / Ontario)

Halloween day ... we got the house ready for guests (kids coming to the door), which meant we had to dump candy in a bowl, we also thought about watching something scary and what to drink with it.  Turns out we watched an episode of the Next Iron Chef, scary if you consider all the knives that are flying about ... and there was plenty of blood and guts as they cut into the fresh fish.  While watching I opened a bottle of Toso Sparkling Malbec from Argentina.  Not a usual bubbly, but I had put it in the fridge a few days previously and thought it a good time to sample it.  The nose was quite lovely with raspberry and cherry notes; these translated to the palate but the cherry turned strawberry across the mid-palate. The only drawback to this wine was the bitter finish ... maybe it would have paired better with something other than the soup and sandwich we scarfed down.  But on its own it is good until the last drop, could this be a bubbly for steak?  Feel free to try it and let me know.

In the evening we headed over to some friends' house - after the trick-or-treaters had had their way with our candy bowl, for pizza and wings.  I brought along a bottle of Closson Chase 2009 Sans Chene Chardonnay ... one attendee remarked, after seeing Deborah Paskus' name on the back of the bottle "this is so unlike Deborah, I can actually taste fruit, she usually masks it all in wood."  "Sans Chene" means unoaked so it stands to reason this wine would be fresh and fruity, but with ... well heck, why repeat the review I just published, check it out here.


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