2024 “Zarpada” Torrontés Riojano

TASTING NOTES
Zarpada is Argentine slang for really good or impressive, used to describe something outrageous and all around mind-blowing. The word comes from zarpar: to weigh anchor and set sail, to go beyond the norm or accepted limits. It also describes the newest addition to Obsidian Wine Company’s Rabbit Hole line. Once you open this bottle, the aromas smack you in the face in all its muscat-y goodness. Lilacs, honeysuckle and floral notes make you anticipate a sweet wine, yet the flavors reveal fresh acidity. Torrontés can be a very austere white wine, thin and crispy in its modern versions. This one has some body due to soaking it on skins before fermentation started. This adds mid-palate weight and just a hint of tannin. Think orange wine without the oxidation. Peach blossom, citrus and minerality on the palate will have you yelling “ZARPADA!” at everyone walking by.

HISTORY
Grower Ron Silva planted possibly the first and only Torrontés vines in California back in the ’90s with budwood he got from Dr. Nick Dokoozlian, the head of wine growing research for Gallo. The provenance of the cuttings was unknown, perhaps that is why the folks at Gallo were so willing to let go of them. In Ron’s legendary Silvaspoons Vineyard in Alta Mesa AVA, this rare grape thrives alongside a variety of obscure Portuguese varieties he is known for pioneering in the USA. The site is loose gravel over hard-packed sandstone with a climate nearly identical to Alentejo, east of Lisbon. 

Torrontés Riojano, as the grape is required to be called in the USA, is a cross of Mission and Muscat of Alexandria grapes famously grown in the high valleys of the La Rioja Province of Argentina.

WINEMAKING
Torrontés is known for its aromatics and floral aspects, so we let it sit on the skins for a bit to soak up some extra oomph from those big, beautiful berries and give the wine extra backbone. 

Casey Graybehl, Winemaker