Chapter 3
of 4
Tierra de Torrontés
If Mendoza belongs to Malbec, Salta belongs to Torrontés. Torrontés Riojano is a genuinely Argentine grape, and it reaches its finest expression around Cafayate — where, fittingly, Argentina's oldest recorded living vine is a Torrontés planted back in 1862.
It is a wine that fools people. The nose is extravagant — jasmine, orange blossom, white peach, rose — so floral that you brace for something sweet. Then the palate arrives dry, fresh, and faintly bitter on the finish, like good grapefruit pith. Served cold on a hot Cafayate afternoon, it is very hard to beat, and it loves the local table: empanadas salteñas, goat cheese, anything with a whisper of chilli.
