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Donald Hess’s Colomé: Torrontés at 7,000 Feet
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In October 2012, we flew to Buenos Aires. The following morning, we boarded the 10:25 Aerolíneas flight bound for Salta. The European-styled town set in the Northwestern corner of Argentina, not far from the Bolivian border, is one of the more charming in South America. But we didn’t have much time for sightseeing. We had a date with Thibaut Delmotte, the winemaker at Colomé.
The jet-setters who come to Colomé for a long weekend of wining, dining, and horseback riding hop an 11 a.m. helicopter at the Salta airport. They climb 6,000 feet in less than an hour, arriving in Colomé in time for a 3-star lunch. But our travel budgets don’t allow for jet-setting. As a result, we took the SUV shuttle, a bumpy, 5-hour adventure into the high desert, after which both of us were in need of chiropractic adjustments.
Bodega Colomé was founded in 1831, purportedly by the Spanish governor of Salta. In 1854, the governor’s daughter Ascensión brought and planted the first pre-phylloxera vines at Colomé.
When Donald Hess purchased Colomé in 2001, the Napa Valley icon quickly raised the bar on what many consider the most audacious viticultural development project in the world. Hess’s team, seduced by the cleansing climate — the mild days, cold nights, and powerful UV rays — adopted rigorous biodynamic farming protocols. Then they helped build housing, a school, and a community center to entice Salta labor to the high ground.
When you first walk these rows, feel the hot sun and the steady breeze, you can’t help but be stunned by the glowing health of the vines. Incredibly, 160 years after the governor’s daughter smuggled in that French budwood, her vineyard continues to push out a precious crop of thick-skin clusters, making for the most exquisitely mineral and exotic Torrontés in Argentina.
Drawn entirely from 30- to 60-year-old vines perched at 5,500-7,300 feet in elevation, Torrontés yields at Colomé are roughly half those of Mendoza. While the sun shines brightly in the high desert, summer days are cool and nights are cold, allowing these small-berry clusters to ripen slowly, incrementally, nursing out gorgeous citronelle concentration without sacrificing a gram of riveting mountain acidity.
In the superb Salta harvest of 2015, Colomé’s small Torrontés crop wouldn’t be harvested until late June. The alcohol level is modest, a Burgundian 13.5%, while pH is a refreshing 3.6. At a time when it’s nearly impossible to uncover truly inspired, critically acclaimed, under-$14 New World white wines, Delmotte crafted just that — drawing a rare 90-point review from the stingiest critic in the world, Stephen Tanzer.
The 2015 Colomé Torrontés is brilliant pale green, infused with piercing aromas of white flowers, peach, and anise. Almost Burgundian in its refinement, juicy and pure, filled with ripe citrus and orchard-pit minerality, finishing with bracing, high-altitude acidity.
This is a gorgeous new release from Colomé, a fabulous summer white that will drink beautifully over the next 12-15 months. $159/case — Summer Cold-Pack Shipping included, where needed … right to your door.