WTF is Torrontés? (Argentinian wine, high-altitude wines, wines for white wine lovers - and maybe red wine lovers, too!)

Show Notes

Episode 60: WTF is Torrontés?  00:00

Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

Ok, a quick orientation for those of you who may be new to the podcast - in each episode we learn about, taste and review three wines that are reasonably priced - meaning under $20 - and should be easy for you to find. Our goal is to have some fun, learn about some new wines, and talk about wines in a way that regular people like us can understand. And we are proud to say we  are officially recommended by the editors of Decanter Magazine, who call us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining. 

Carmela, we are back in our old digs again after a brief hiatus into the bowels of the garage into our palatial recording table in the basement! What could be better than this, other than maybe watching the next episode of The White Lotus! 

Well, what could be better is that we are back to one of our most favoritest episode series in the whole wide world - the What the Fuck series where we get to learn about wines that we - and probably you out there in listening land - know little to nothing about. As nerdy life long learners who also love wine, this is like the best thing ever! And this episode we are trying a white wine originally from the World Cup Champion country of Argentina called Torrontés. 

And you love white wine, so this will be fun. And, you know what is funny is that, as I drink more wine and more different types of wines, I am coming to appreciate white wines more and more. I think part of that may be that I like high acid wines that go well with food, and I tend not to love wines that are heavily oaked, but I think another reason why is that, when it comes to bang for your buck, you can get great white wines under $20, and that is probably easier to do with white wines than with reds. Because economics! Red wines just tend to be more expensive than white which we have discussed in previous episodes (we specifically covered it in episode 45, also a WTF, on Albariño which is a pretty awesome white wine, too). 

Now we love these WTF episodes because they are fun and kind of exciting because, in most cases, like today, we have never had this wine before. Sometimes that works out great, like in our last WTF episode on Carménère. We found Carménère to be a great new wine find, something we liked, and something pretty different than we have had before. So that was a winner!

Every once in a while, though, we risk running into a clunker, which is what happened when we did a WTF episode on Carignan. Now, maybe we just found 3 different Carignan wines that were not good, BUT we think the more likely reality is that Carignan is just not a good wine, and not really worth your time. Of course, you don’t have to take our word for it - in fact, we recommend you try those wines yourselves!

And, honestly, most of the time in our episodes we are trying a particular wine for the first time, so you always know that our reactions are honest and real. We will try to never pull any punches on you - and also we promise never to punch you. Because that would be rude. 

So, we are are super excited to try this wine called Torrontés - right, Carmela?!? And we’ll talk about where it's from and the wines we chose and we’ll rate and review three Torrontés wines  . . . 

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug, right Carmela? If you are enjoying what you are hearing, we think it would be super peachy if you would subscribe to our podcast, like right now! And we would also be tickled pink if you would leave us a nice a rating and review on our website or on your podcast service so that people who are searching around will see our ratings and go holy shit, I should check these guys out!

You can also follow us or reach out to us on Instagram at thewinepairpodcast or on CounterSocial - our Twitter alternative of choice -  or contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com.

And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should tell about The Wine Pair Podcast, and this week we want you tell anyone you know who likes to play soccer or whose name includes Lionel or Messi.

ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://www.docgimports.com/blog/What-makes-a-white-wine-less-expensive-than-a-red-wine-

Topic: WTF is Torrontés?  08:41

So, what the F exactly is Torrontés, Carmela? Because, before prepping for this episode, I had zero clue. In fact, I had probably only heard it come up in conversation once or twice, and did not know what it was other than it was a white wine. 

So, Torrontés is a wine that is grown almost exclusively in Argentina, and is considered the flagship wine of Argentina, although there is a little bit also grown in some South American countries like Chile and Peru. It is a wine that can be dry to moderately sweet, is low tannin and medium acid, and also low alcohol and light bodied. 

So, from that perspective, Torrontés doesn’t seem all that different from most white wines. Right?!? However, where things can change a bit is in the Torrontés flavor profile - it is often described as having rose and geranium smells and tastes to it, which is not common for a white wine. In fact, it is often called “aromatic”  - what do you think of when you hear that word? And a wine that is described as smelling sweet but is most often a dry wine. For comparison, it is sometimes compared to Riesling or Moscato. Riesling I like. Moscato, which can be very sweet, not so much. 

It is also supposed to be a wine that goes well with Asian and Indian food, which is not unusual for a white wine, and something we really like, and I think we are getting hungry!

An interesting fun fact - you like fun facts, don’t you, Carmela?!? There are evidently 3 types of Torrontés wine grapes that a Torrontés can be made from, which is really fucking confusing. It seems that different regions make different Torrontés wines made from different version of the grape, and they can result in different styles of the wine. The three types are Torrontés Riojano, Torrontés Sanjuanino and Torrontés Mendocino. I feel like we ran into this EXACT issue with different variations on the same grape with Trebbiano in our episode on the Feast of the Seven Fishes!

I am going to make you guess now - which one of those three is the most popular?!? 5 bucks if you get it right. Of the three, the most popular is Torrontés Riojano which grows in the Salta region of Argentina (ironically, as I am putting the show notes for this episode together I am watching Argentina play Australia in the World Cup!). Two of the wines we are trying today are from Salta, which is in the northern region of Argentina. A third is from Mendoza, which is very famous for Malbec, but for Torrontés from that region, they are often made with one of the other two grapes. However, in trying to research the particular wine we have, it just says that it is 100% Torrontés. So, we’ll see if it is similar or different from the other two. 

The Salta region of Argentina is a very high altitude region, and like other Argentinian grapes, Torrontés is often grown at 5,000 to nearly 10,000 feet. Which is crazy! Do you remember anything about high altitude grape growing from previous episodes? So, these wines can get tons of sun in the morning, and then at night be exposed to really cool temperatures. And, these wines are often made from grape vines that are old - according to one article you can find in our show notes, over 1/3rd of Salta’s vines are over 100 years old. 

These wines are usually made without oak, and are considered to be crisp and best consumed in the first couple of years after they are released. 

So, I am super curious about these wines! Aren’t you?!? Well, we will try them in a bit, but first let’s learn a little bit about the wines we chose for this episode, whaddya say?!?


ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/on-finding-a-great-torrontes-wine/
• https://southamericawineguide.com/calchaqui-valley-wine-region-guide/
• https://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-939-torrontes

Torrontés Wine We Chose for This Episode 13:26

As usual, all the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $20, and in fact none of the wines we are trying today are over $14, so how about that?!? And all of them are wines that you should be able to find because we bought them on wine.com, and while you may not be able to find these particular wines there, I know you can find Torrontés at Total Wine and shops like that, and if you have a good wine shop close by, they will likely have these wines or can order them for you.

Also, all of the wines we are trying today have been rated by some professional wine reviewer with a score over 90, although for two of them, that reviewer is James Suckling who can’t help but rate things at 90 or higher. And, for an extra special bonus, all of these wines are screw cap! Woo Hoo!

The first wine is called Amalaya Blanco, and is only $10.99, so, if it’s a good wine, it is a screaming deal! Especially since this vintage got a 93 rating from Decanter, and the previous vintage, the 2020, got a 91 from Vinous, which is one of my most trusted sources. So high hopes on this one!

Now, this wine is actually a blend of 85% Torrontés and 15% Riesling, so not 100% Torrontés. The wine website says that the wine is grown at an altitude of 5,900 feet in the Calchaquí Valley which is part of Salta, and is one of the highest vineyards in the world. My head is starting to spin just thinking about it - I am getting light headed and I might pass out. 

The second wine we are going to try is called Zolo Torrontés and is from the Mendoza area of Argentina, so a bit farther south than the Salta area. This is a wine that is also grown at a high elevation, but not quite as high at about 3,500 feet above sea level. 

They claim that this wine is 100% Torrontés, but they do not indicate what version of Torrontés it is, and so we can only guess that it may be either the Torrontés Sanjuanino or the Torrontés Mendocino. But who knows. They also claim that this wine is sustainably farmed. 

It is also only $11.99, so, again, if this is a good wine, the price is great!

The last wine we are going to try is called Bodega Colome Torrontés. This wine is from Salta, and like the first one, is from the Calchaquí Valley. It is also listed as Vegan. If you are curious about what makes a wine Vegan, we talk about it in episode 41 - and it’s actually quite fascinating. 

This is another wine that is grown at super high altitudes. The website says their grapes are grown at 7,218-10,207 feet above sea level. Again, I am starting to feel light headed just thinking about it. 

They also say that this wine is 100% Torrontés and is our most expensive wine at $13.99 - so, all in all, still not bad.

What’s been a little bit interesting about these wines is they are not clarifying if they are fermented in stainless steel, which I am expecting they are, or if they are oaked, which I am expecting they are not, or if they go through malolactic fermentation, which I am expecting they do not - and again, malolactic fermentation is used to mellow out wines that are high in acid. 

So, I am really excited and interested and intrigued to try these wines. We are also going to be serving them cold - like refrigerator cold - so these are wines that are meant to be pretty cool when they are served. 

All right, enough of that jibber jabber, I think it’s time to try some wine!


ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://www.wine.com/product/amalaya-blanco-2021/1052901 (Affiliate link)
• https://www.foliowine.com/wine/amalaya-blanco/
• https://www.wine.com/product/zolo-torrontes-2020/779164 (Affiliate link)
• http://www.bodega-tapiz.com.ar/en/wines/zolo-wines/zolo-torrontes/2020
• https://www.wine.com/product/bodega-colome-torrontes-2021/880957 (Affiliate link)
• https://www.bodegacolome.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FT-Torrontes-2020-English.pdf 

Torrontés wine pairing tasting and review 19:49

Wine: Amalaya Blanco (Click here to buy this wine - affiliate link)
Region: Argentina, Northern Calchaqui Valley
Producer: Amalaya, part of the Folio Fine Wine Partners
Year: 2021
Price: $10.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 13%
Grapes: 85% Torrontés, 15% Riesling
Professional Rating: D 93

What we tasted and smelled in this Torrontés: Apple, claypot, earthy, green pear, rose, floral, sweet scent, complexity and depth, herbal, spice, a little gasoline like a Riesling. Smells much sweeter than it tastes.

Food to pair with this Torrontés: Asian or Indian food, cream sauce pasta, pesto, garlicky foods, pizza bianco, grilled chicken sandwich,

As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, whole numbers, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and in-between we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Rating: 

• Joe: 8/10
• Carmela: 7/10

Wine: Zolo Torrontés (Click here to buy this wine - affiliate link)
Region: Argentina, Mendoza
Producer: Bodega Zolo, part of the Bodega Tapiz company of wines
Year: 2020
Price: $11.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 13.7%
Grapes: Torrontés
Professional Rating: JS 91

What we tasted and smelled in this Torrontés: Apple, more fruit on the smell but also gasoline, sweet smell and less complex, tart and sour on the taste, not a great aftertaste, citrus, melon, grapefruit and the pith from the grapefruit, bitter.

Food to pair with this Torrontés: Would be better with food than standing alone. Spicy or fried food - fried chicken or fish and chips, 

Rating: 

• Joe: 6/10
• Carmela: 5/10

Wine: Bodega Colome Torrontés (Click here to buy this wine - Affiliate link)
Region: Argentina, Salta
Producer: Bodega Colome, owned by Hess Family Estates
Year: 2021
Price: $13.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 13.5%
Grapes: Torrontés
Professional Rating: JS 92

What we tasted and smelled in this Torrontés: Rose or flowers on the smell, sweet gasoline smell, spice, citrus - lime juice out of the plastic lime, floral tasting, acidic almost astringent, rose water with citrus in it, tastes like a perfume. 

Food to pair with this Torrontés: Fried food, Asian foods, spicy foods, should be drunk with food. Sharp cheese. 

Rating: 

• Joe: 6/10
• Carmela: 6/10

Which one of these Torrontés are you finishing tonight?

• Carmela: Amalaya Blanco
• Joe: Amalaya Blanco

What do you think about Torrontés?
Would like to continue to try. A wine you should try if you are a wine fan or learning about wine, or if you are a white wine lover.

Taste profiles expected from Torrontés:  39:05

• Wine Folly
  • Meyer lemon, peach, rose petal, geranium, citrus zest
• Amalaya
  • D: Perfumed with citrus and lifted floral jasmine, then to a palate underpinned with a creamy acidity
  • Website: Citrus notes of grapefruit and lemon skins dominate the nose
• Zolo
  • JS: Perfumed aromas of orange blossom, lime zest, white peach and honeydew melon. 
    • Winery: fresh and bright, with loads of jasmine, citrus, and white peach flavors.
• Bodega Colome
• JS: Aromas of elderflowers, lemon blossom, green apples and melon. Balanced and so drinkable, with no bitterness or pithiness
  • Winery: Floral notes of roses, the citrus aroma of grapefruit and a spicy hint.

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 41:00

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Thanks for listening to the Wine Pair podcast, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine