2020 Zuccardi Torrontés Serie A Salta Argentina 750 ml

Sebastián Zuccardi is an Argentine Midas with a mile-long list of praise, including 99- and 100-point wines and back-to-back “World’s Best Vineyard” honors. However, when we tasted his Serie A Torrontés we nearly forgot about all of that because this wine commanded the room with its crisp and exhilarating character. 

Torrontés is a grape grown almost exclusively in Argentina that combines the aromatic complexity of Riesling and the bone-dry palate of Sauvignon Blanc. Zuccardi’s version is energetic and textured. Its freshly cut pineapple, mandarin blossom, starfruit, and herb aromas are as dramatic and striking as its mountain home. On the palate, it’s dry and medium-bodied but exquisitely refreshing with tropical fruit and cleansing acidity on a finish that lingers until the wine compels you to take another sip.

Cafayate, one of Wine Enthusiast’s Best Wine Destinations, is a mountainous region that’s home to some of the world’s highest and most dramatic vineyards—and it’s an absolute Eden for Torrontés, which thrives in Cafayate’s high altitudes. 

Zuccardi exercises the hands-on approach of a boutique, crafting each wine—whether $15 or $150—with painstaking care. “In the winery,” he told us. “We have to be very respectful of the work we did in the vineyard.” For him, this means eschewing new oak in favor of cement in order to produce transparent, more site-specific wines. Without the distraction of oak, the wine conveys the region’s succulent richness and complexity with crystalline precision.

With this Torrontés, Zuccardi has harnessed an excellent, dry growing season that produced concentrated grapes and intense, aromatic white wine. Don’t miss it.