Quara 2004 Cafayate Valley Torrontes, about $9
Cafayate couldn't be more different from Mendoza, Argentina's most well-known wine region. Where Mendoza is lushly green, Cafayate offers sweeping vistas of wind- and water- scrubbed rocks of red, yellow and purple hues; where Mendoza specializes in red wines, like malbec, Salta's best wine is arguably a light, flowery white wine from a grape called torrontes.
Torrontes thrives in the combination of intense sun and cool breezes that bathe Cafayate's vineyards at a chilly 6,000 feet. (One wonders how it would do if planted on Colorado's Western Slope.) The result can be tasted in Quara's torrontes ripe, juicy peach and litchi flavors that feel weightless, carried on a garden's worth of floral scents.
Pour it for an aperitif or with light dishes, or whenever you need a taste of high summer.
