Smells Like Leather...No, Pine!

On Wednesday, Matt and I attended a blind white wine tasting event at Casa Coupage. Here's the very attractive wine tasting salon where it took place. (I took the photo after all eight attendees left.)

The evening started with a sniffing test. We were passed small vials of scented liquid and asked to identify the smells. The aroma was often very familiar, but it was amazing how hard it was to put your finger on it. People had completely polarized ideas, too. One person would say it smells like rubber. Another would says it smells like cat urine. (Seriously.) Sadly, out of six vials, I only got one correct, and it was naranja (orange), arguably the easiest. The exercise, Santiago and Ines explained, was to help us train our nose. Clearly Matt and I need a lot of help in this area!

Next was the blind tasting of three white wines, meaning you taste them without seeing the bottle. We learned how to evaluate them based on smell, appearance and taste. What was really neat is they have special wooden tables with a built-in light strip in the center. You hold your wine over the light for a better examination of its properties. Then, after finally taking a sip, you rank the wine using a handy chart and try to identify the grape. I got the first two correct (Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc) but was thrown off by the third, a Viognier that was not nearly as sweet as I'm used to. All three wines were Argentine and sell for around 30 pesos.

Here's a photo of their custom-built, temperature-controlled wine cabinet, which is really rather high-tech but is made to look like antique furniture so that it blends in with the 1920s house.

The last part of the evening was the pairing menu. Casa Coupage works with a terrific chef who designs a gourmet meal to complement the selected wines. Our meal included grilled polenta with goat cheese, mango salad, trout ravioli and an apple tarte. Que rico! With each dish, we noted the wine that paired best with it. This, for me, was really the "a-ha" moment. Once you taste the food and then go back to the wine, you may have an entirely different impression. The wine I liked the least upon my initial tasting (the Sauvignon Blanc) was suddenly my clear favorite with the trout ravioli, for example.

And as if the evening wasn't thrilling enough, we made instant friends with the two very fascinating and well-traveled people at our tasting table: Ronnie, who is starting an olive oil exportation business in Patagonia, and Maria Jose, who is the regional marketing manager for Disney on Ice. They've both lived all over the world (the US, Spain, Germany, Mexico, etc.) and lucky for me, they both speak fluent English. Here's a photo of Maria Jose speaking to Ines in the foyer. You'll be hearing more about her and Ronnie. He invited all of us to dinner at the nearly hundred-year-old Club Nautico San Isidro, a famous boat club located in the river delta.