What is Torrontés
Most “Argentine” grapes are European immigrants — Malbec came from France, Cabernet from Bordeaux. Torrontés is different: it was born here. DNA analysis shows it's a natural crossing of Muscat of Alexandria (a wildly perfumed old Mediterranean grape, brought by Spanish settlers) and Criolla Chica (the hardy “Mission” grape that came with the early colonists). Somewhere in colonial South America those two vines crossed on their own, and Torrontés was the happy accident.
That Muscat parent explains everything about the aromatics — the heady, floral, almost grapey perfume is pure Muscat inheritance. One useful warning for label-readers: there's an unrelated grape called Torrontés in Galicia, Spain. Despite the shared name, it has nothing to do with the Argentine one. When people say “Torrontés,” they mean this.
