Not so very long ago, Argentina’s Calchaqui Valley could lay claim to the tallest vineyards in the world. Clinging to the eastern slopes of the Andes, these sites have allowed Argentina to create a unique industry around its high-altitude Malbec and Torrontés.
But in 2012–and officially verified by Guinness in 2018–Argentina ceded the “highest vineyard” title to Tibet. The 3,563.31 meter high plots of the Pure Land Super-high Altitude Vineyard are planted with 11 types of grapes including Vidal, Muscat, and indigenous varieties. Vidal icewine, pressed from partially frozen grapes, is a specialty in the Himalayan foothills. High-end Cabernet Sauvignon is also emerging in the region.
Wine from the Tibetan Plateau has yet to elbow its way onto the shelves at your neighborhood wine stores. The location is secluded, yields are low, and the small production is mostly sold to the upscale wine buyers in Europe and China. (Luxury conglomerate LVMH is a top investor in Tibet’s boutique wine business.) I can’t buy Tibetan fine wine in my market, but I’m told it retails for the equivalent of around $300 a bottle.
So yes, they can make wine on the Roof of the World. And they do–just not a lot of it. But for Argentina, the super-high altitude grapevines are both a geographical curiosity and an important commercial industry.
Bodega Colomé (who produced today’s wine) controls vineyards ranging in altitude from 1,750 to 3,111 meters above sea level. Along with Amalaya, their other high-altitude winery in Cafayete, they currently ship over 1.5 million bottles a year.
One of those bottles has made its way to me today: The 2024 Colomé Estate Torrontés from Calchaqui Valley, Argentina. I’m sipping it at The Wine Authority in Richardson, Texas (Altitude: 192 meters).
I’m moved by this wine and its story of extremes and statistical defeat. I’m shocked by its price–less than the cost of a single ounce of Tibetan icewine.
But even if I knew of none of those things, what’s in the glass is also stunning. Maybe I was a hummingbird in a past life. (Or maybe–I dunno, a fairy.) Because if a wine smells and tastes intensely of flowers, I’m going to be helpless against it.
It comes on strong with luxurious florals, like the soap in a nice hotel bathroom. Rose and gardenia hotel soap–with a cursory herbal gesture toward a unisex fragrance (lemon verbena?). Medium-plus acidity zings the palate in harmony with its citric freshness. Our imaginary hotel in the clouds offers not just good soap, but good breakfast fruit: Pristine white peaches and pears, grapefruit without any pith, and fragrant green melon so soft and ripe you can eat it with a spoon.
At the risk of sounding like a high (on pot, not altitude) person, Torrontés blows my mind, dude. It’s absolutely unreal that grapes can taste so strongly of things that they are not. Powerful yet ethereal, brimming with heavenly fragrance, this exotic mountain wine is available for the price of, like, a cheeseburger.
100% Torrontés, made from La Brava vineyard estate fruit harvested between 1,700 to 2,300 meters. Stainless-steel fermented. 3,000 cases imported.
Bottle: Colomé Estate Torrontés Calchaqui Valley (2024)
Variety: Torrontés (100%)
ABV: 13%
Suggested retail: $12.99
My rating: 9 (out of 10)
Further reading:
Decanter: “World’s highest vineyard” is in Tibet, says Guinness World Records
Village Cellars: Creating special wines from remote, high-altitude vineyards (winemaker interview with Thibaut Delmotte of Bodega Colomé)
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
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