A substitute for Santa Julia Torrontes or Marques de Caceres Rioja Blanco

Hello All!

Alison and I have decided to use a menu found in the November Food and Wine (it's a free subscription, just like Wine Spectator) for Thanksgiving.

We are going to have the Madeira Braised Turkey with Fried Sage Stuffing. I'm not going to use my 5yr old Miles, but the cheap cheap Paul Masson. The magazine recommends 1999 Chateau Gruaud Larose or 1999 Napanook. As my local wine store does not carry such, I settled for 1999 Chateau Gloria St. Julien. How did I do?

For the Creamy Shrimp Casserole with Buttery Crumbs, they recommend 2002 Santa Julia Torrontes(Argentina) or 2002 Marques de Caceres Rioja Blanco(Spain). This time, the store had 2002 Marques de Caceres Rioja.

What would be a good similar substitute for either of these wines?

I also picked up 2 bottles of Eroica, Chateau St. Michelle (Dr. Loosen has his name on the bottle). Tasting note following soon.

Thanks In Advance,

Walter

Hi Walter: I actually thought that recipe looked good also.

First of all, the specificy of some of those wine recommendations floor me. It's ridiculous to send people out for a particular wine- why not say "A Bordeaux style blend from a decent year would be good"? As it turns out, I'd say that you did better than the recommendations (at least the Gruaud, I haven't had the Napanook- though as second wine of Dominus it's pretty decent usually). The 1999 Gloria is a nice early drinking St. Julien. Though the Gruaud is early drinking for Gruaud, it's still a bit tannic. And the Gloria is

1/2 the price.

I don't see a real similarity between their two suggestions! But in any case, just look for a clean white with good acidity. Sauvignon Blanc (Loire Valley, NZ, or CA) maybe.

I'm betting you like it, but please post notes.

Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply