Torrontés: Argentina’s Aromatic White That Tastes Dry

Torrontés is Argentina’s signature white grape. It smells like a sweet, flowery wine and then tastes bone dry, which is exactly what makes it worth knowing.

If Malbec is Argentina’s red, Torrontés is its white. The best of it comes from vineyards planted higher than almost anywhere else on earth.¹

Three grapes, one name

“Torrontés” is really three related varieties: Torrontés Riojano, Torrontés Sanjuanino and Torrontés Mendocino.² The one that matters most is Riojano, the most aromatic and the source of Argentina’s finest examples. DNA testing shows it is a natural cross of Muscat of Alexandria and Criolla Chica (the grape known in California as Mission), which explains its heady, Muscat-like perfume.²

Why altitude matters

Torrontés shines in the far north, in the Calchaquí Valleys of Salta, around the town of Cafayate.¹ Cafayate sits around 1,700 meters, and vineyards climb higher still up the Calchaquí Valleys — some of the highest on earth, reaching past 3,000 meters at Colomé. The thin mountain air and strong sun build the grape’s intense floral aromatics, while cold nights lock in the acidity that keeps the wine fresh. Grown too warm and low, Torrontés can turn flabby and bitter; grown high, it comes alive.

Smells sweet, tastes dry

Pour a glass and the nose promises dessert: jasmine, rose, peach, apricot, lychee.³ The first sip corrects the impression, because most Torrontés is fully dry, with a crisp, sometimes faintly bitter finish. That contrast is its signature and its usefulness at the table, where it stands up to spiced and aromatic food that flattens blander whites.³

Read more

• Malbec, Argentina’s flagship red
• Luigi Bosca and the making of Argentine wine

References

1. Torrontés as three distinct varieties (Riojano, Sanjuanino, Mendocino) and the DNA parentage of Torrontés Riojano (Muscat of Alexandria × Criolla Chica/Mission): J. Robinson, J. Harding & J. Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes (2012); The Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th ed., “Torrontés.”
2. Argentina’s signature aromatic white; the high-altitude Calchaquí Valleys of Salta and Cafayate; the “smells sweet, tastes dry” character: The Oxford Companion to Wine; Wines of Argentina; Wine Enthusiast.

Want to read more? Try these books

The Oxford Companion to Wine Jancis Robinson (ed.)

The Story of Wine Hugh Johnson

Ancient Wine Patrick E. McGovern

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