Last week saw the continuation of the latest Twitter Taste Live experiment, which has a small number of bloggers tasting a selection of wines from Argentine producers, concentrating weekly on samples from select winemaking regions within that country.  Call it a virtual tour of Argentina, lived vicariously through wine (and the 140-character portal-to-the-world that is twitter).

We’ve already been through the dizzying heights of Salta, where vines are planted 5,000-10,000 feet above sea level and Torrontes achieves styles that range from flowery to elegant.  Last week, we ventured to Mendoza, the earthly dwelling place of the soul of the dense & dark Malbec.

Most Malbec fans know (and love) it in its tannic, concentrated, dark & lovely (and low-priced) form – an almost perfect accompaniment to hearty, grilled or BBQ meats.  But the producers that were highlighted in last week’s TTL (Jean Bousquet, Trapiche, Zuccardi and O. Fournier wineries) showed more complex sides of the stalwart Argentine star performer.  Just as the range of what’s possible with Torrontes stole the show in our Salta tasting, what shone through in last week’s event was just how well Malbec can reflect terroir when it’s put into capable hands.

How impressed was I?  Let’s put it this way: I declared the 2006 O. Fournier Alfa Crux  Malbec to be the best wine that we’ve ever poured for a TTL event, and I’ve participated in nearly every single TTL since its inception over a year ago.  You read that correctly – the best wine poured at a TTL, ever.  For the record, I was spitting and (mostly) sober.

It’s worth noting that, true to recent form, twitter’s search API puked all over itself just as the event was supposed to kick off.  What should have ended in a premature disaster due to twitter’s inaccessibility and slow performance became a memorable and enjoyable tasting – which is a big credit to the TTL staff and participating winemakers who hung in there and rallied the bloggers once things returned to relative normalcy in twitter-ville.  TasteLive.com are planning some changes that will help the events to carry on even when twitter isn’t cooperating – more on that in the near future.

Read on to playback a recap of the twitter stream from last week’s event…

Cheers!

(images: 1WineDude)

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