{"id":18645,"date":"2014-05-01T20:45:14","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T00:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/?p=18645"},"modified":"2014-07-04T09:16:37","modified_gmt":"2014-07-04T13:16:37","slug":"torrontes-white-wine-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/torrontes-white-wine-argentina\/","title":{"rendered":"Torrontes: Argentina’s White Wine Wild Card"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Celebrate<\/a>By Natalie MacLean<\/p>\n

Although Argentina made its reputation on Malbec, there are more than a hundred grapes planted in the country, many of them obscure and no longer grown in other wine regions.<\/p>\n

The weird and the wonderful thrive in this museum of lost grapes: primitivo, bonarda, corvine, mouvedre and especially Torrontes<\/strong><\/a>\u2014the most distinguished white wine of Argentina<\/strong><\/a>.\"Hermanos<\/a><\/p>\n

5 Surprising Facts about Torrontes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. In the past, the country’s warm climate made producing fresh whites difficult. However, modern controlled-temperature fermentation and storage changed that for many white wines, and none more so than torrontes, a crisp, aromatic tumble of daisies, lychees and white peaches.<\/p>\n

2. The wine has been described as \u201cthe new viognier.\u201d Viognier\u2019s home is France, especially in the northern Rh\u00f4ne Valley regions of Condrieu and Ch\u00e2teau-Grillet, where it\u2019s the only white grape used and produces magnificently floral, voluptuous and expensive wines.<\/p>\n

3. Torrontes<\/strong><\/a>, to me, seems closer aromatically to Alsatian gew\u00fcrztraminer or Alexandrian muscat. It\u2019s a peach-fest of pungently floral aromas that makes you expect sweetness, but it\u2019s as bone-dry as chablis with a crisp, feisty finish.<\/p>\n

It will thrill anyone looking for a value-priced condrieu since it has the same mouth-filling, voluptuous texture as that rare Rh\u00f4ne Valley white.<\/p>\n

\"Crios<\/a>4. The epicenter of torrontes is eight hundred and fifty miles north of Mendoza, in the Salta region near the Bolivian border. The light-skinned fruit was originally thought to be related to the Spanish grape of the same name.<\/p>\n

5. However, Carole Meredith, professor emerita of the University of California at Davis, has proved it to be a cross between the muscat grape of Alexandria and a local grape called criolla chica. Torrontes supposedly arrived in Argentina in the hatbox of a Jesuit priest.<\/p>\n

Torrontes has since gone international, gaining a cultish following in Thailand, where its Turkish Delight-tangerine essence suits the cuisine so well.<\/p>\n

It also pairs wonderfully with many spicy dishes and curries, and also works well with salads, seafood, shellfish, vegetarian dishes and makes a terrific aperitif. Torrontes is best consumed young, within a year or two of the vintage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Natalie MacLean Although Argentina made its reputation on Malbec, there are more than a hundred grapes planted in the country, many of them obscure and no longer grown in other wine regions. The weird and the wonderful thrive in this museum of lost grapes: primitivo, bonarda, corvine, mouvedre and especially Torrontes\u2014the most distinguished white wine of Argentina. 5 Surprising Facts about Torrontes: 1. In the past, the country’s warm climate made producing fresh whites difficult. However, modern controlled-temperature fermentation and storage changed that for many white wines, and none more so than torrontes, a crisp, aromatic tumble of daisies, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[371,113,324,394],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-argentina-wine","category-best-wines","category-torrontes","category-white-wine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18645"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19590,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18645\/revisions\/19590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}