Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Boxed Wine? Yellow and Blue Torrontes


Am I seriously going to suggest wine from a box to you?  Yes I am.  Even though I work in a wine store and should know better?  Yeah even with that in mind I can still say this is a great wine.  It just also happens to come in a box.

I have to admit however that the only reason I bought the Yellow and Blue Torrontes in the first place was to mess with Lindsay during a wine tasting.  The theme of our wine tasting group that month was weird wines and I figured a boxed wine in a room full of wine snobs would be pretty weird.  But I didn't want anyone's preconcieved notions clouding their tasting of the wine so I poured in a carafe, not allowing anyone to know there was a box of wine in my house.  It worked, everyone though I was nuts to carafe a white but no one suspected what was really afoot in fact everyone kind of liked the wine.

The group deemed it "pleasantly syrupy" and "like drinking the forest floor" in reference to the fact that it is both grassy, floral and earthy.  All of those characteristic come together somehow to create a really nice wine. It's a bit sweeter than some of the other Torrontes I've had.  My favorite the Michel Torino Don David Torrontes comes in at the far other end of the spectrum for the varietal at a much higher price point and much drier, crisp mouth feel.  But for an Argentinian Torrontes in a box for $9 the Yellow and Blue is amazing, I would have never thought while buying it I would actually like it enough to continue going back to buy it again and again.

When I did the big reveal of the dreaded box everyone agreed I did the right thing not showing them the box because they would have refused to drink it.  Snobs!  The news that since it comes in a box so actually contains a bottle and a half worth of wine, instantly cheered everyone up.  That's the great thing about this wine, more wine for your money and that's one less glass bottle to contribute to the recycling bin/landfill .  Oh and it's also organic.  The bad news it the wine guy you buy it from will probably make fun of you.  I told my wine seller to hush though because even Robert Parker gave it 90 something points. 

3 comments:

Kristin said...

Not that I'm much of a wine snob to begin with, I read an interesting Slate article on boxed wine becoming cool again not too long ago:

http://www.slate.com/id/2146720/

Emily said...

Thanks for the article, Kristen. It was worth the read even if just for their description of the last wine "Hello, roadkill—a blast of animal fur greets the nose, and then quickly, mercifully gives way to red berries"--wow I really want to try that wine now especially since its $20.

Kristin said...

Well, they can't all be winners. I find Franzia's Chillable Red to be a nice addition to my refrigerator...