2012 Crios Torrontes and 2011 Creekbend Traminette

Today 2 wines pretty different from one another: a 2012 Crios Torontes from Argentina and a 2011 Creekbed Tramiette from Oliver Winery in southern Indiana.

The tramiette first.  This is basically a Gewurtz clone.  According to wikipedia, it "is a cross of the French American hybrid Joannes Seyve 23.416 and the German Vitis vinifera cultivarGewürztraminer made by Herb C. Barrett ca. 1965 at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. His intention was to produce a large clustered table grape with the flavor of Gewürztraminer. Traminette was found to have excellent wine quality, combined with good productivity, partial resistance to several fungal diseases, and cold hardiness superior to its acclaimed parent, Gewürztraminer, while retaining a similar character."

The Indiana wine grape council has named tramiette the signature wine of the state.  Not to be cynical, but who lobbied for that?

Anyway, it was sweet, as you'd expect, but very drinkable, not cloyingly sweet.  It had some of Gewurtz's funkiness but that wasn't overwhelming.  It's not a wine I'd drink all the time, as I'm not crazy about sweet wines, but it had nice flavor.

The torrontés is from the Mendoza wine-growing region of Argentina.  Wikipedia says about this grape:

Torrontés is a white Argentine wine grape variety, producing fresh, aromaticwines with moderate acidity, smooth texture and mouthfeel as well as distinctive peach and apricot aromas on the nose/ Three Torrontés varieties exist in Argentina: Torrontés Riojano, the most common, Torrontés Sanjuanino, and Torrontés Mendocino. It is primarily Torrontés Riojano that has received attention for the quality of its wines, and is the variety used for most Argentine wines simply labeled Torrontés.

The three grapes are relatively similar but do have some noticeable differences. Torrontés Riojano and Torrontés Sanjuanino both tend to have large loose bunches of pale grapes while Torrontés Mendocino, however, has smaller, tighter bunches of darker yellow grapes. Torrontés Riojano is the most aromatic of the three, with aromas reminiscent of Muscat and Gewürtztraminer wines. The least aromatic, and least widely planted, is Torrontés Mendocino with the aromatics and plantings of Torrontés Sanjuanino falling in between. All three Argentine Torrontés varieties belong to the Criollas group of grape varieties, which is a term used for presumably American-born cultivars of the European grapevine Vitis vinifera.

This was on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Indiana wine, drier though with some sweetness to it.  Definite citrus notes, maybe grapefruit, lemon, perhaps a touch of vanilla.  This reminded me of Sancerre or Loire wines.

The torrontés would go well with chicken, maybe a sauced pasta, Southeast Asian cuisine.  I liked it, had to keep myself from drinking the whole bottle in one sitting.