ABOUT: In the 1990’s French winemaker Jean Bousquet stumbled upon the highly elevated Gualtallary Valley in Argentina’s Mendoza region and thought it a great place to grown organic grapes. Was he ever right. It’s hard to believe but there was little interest in high altitude wine growing in the 90’s in Argentina, most preferring to stay on the lowlands sticking close to Mendoza. so he snatched it up knowing that high altitude can play a pivotal part in creating top quality wines. Today, Domaine Bousquet is one of Argentina’s largest producers, exporting 95% of their produce (100,000 cases going to the US alone). At the controls are Jean’s daughter Anne and her husband Labid Al Ameri, with Rodrigo Serrano making the wines. From day one the wines have been made free of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, a true feat for a producer this size. And the wines are high quality, delicious, and an incredible value to boot. We’re knocked out by their operation and are happy to have their wines on board.

TASTE: This Bousquet Sauvignon Blanc is so bright and fresh it’s almost shimmering. It treads a fine line between a lean, high toned French Sauvignon Blanc, and a wildly tropical example from New Zealand. Flavors and aromas and lemons, limes, grapefruit, pineapple, apples and salt with a medium body and alcohol. Right for many occasions, even a dreary February day in Seattle. The perfect taco wine.

PAIR: Asparagus and egg, roasted hatch chiles, quiche tarts, pesto Genovese, winter crudite with dill yogurt dip, grilled cheese with tomato, and lemon pepper peas.