Torrontes is way up on my list of favorite whites, mostly due to how much acidity it manages to cram into a glass. For whatever perverse reason, the higher the acidity, the more addictive it is to my taste buds. They yearn to be ceviche in a future life.
Argentina Hogs Torrontes
Argentina’s somehow managed to draw all praise of Torrontes to itself (does anybody else even grow this grape?), and my sommi friend says Salta’s where all that buzz comes from since it’s way up in the mountains. Thinking some wine guy in Wyoming needs to take a hard look at this grape – it’s not like Salta is close to water either.
Luigi Bosca on the Cheap
Finca La Linda’s from Salta and it’s one of Luigi Bosca’s cheaper (cheapest?) brands and even so, this wine’s pretty excellent. And actually, I’m not sure what an expensive Torrontes would be like. More flowers? More kinds of citrus fruits (granadilla, nectarine)? More what? Bacchus forbid they have buttery notes or vanilla coming through this acid express.
Can´t really speak for all Torrontes, but this particular one has loads of lemon and a nice batch of lime too (notice those limes in the background – blessedly unintentional). Sure, it´s got a nose, it’s a cute nose with flowers (little ones, like in the Sound of Music). It’s a nose sorta like one of those little girl, Drew Barrymore noses back in the ET days, but nothing like a cyrano nose that demands entirely focused attention to the detriment of all else. This wine’s all about searing the taste buds into submission.
In sum
Lemons, lemons, limes – the citric duck, duck, goose from Argentina.
Random Googles
* Argentina’s not content with one Torrontes – they have three types of Torrontes.
* Yes, a couple other places in the Americas grow Torrontes. They even make brandy with it and call the grape “Torrontel” to annoy the Argentines.
* Torrontes blogs in its spare time at this site. James Beard approves.