El Porvenir ‘Laborum’ Single Vineyard Torrontés Oak Fermented 2015 Cafayate, Salta, Argentina 75cl

Most Torrontés is made fresh and unoaked to protect its floral perfume, so El Porvenir’s oak-fermented version is a deliberate departure. It comes from the winery’s single-vineyard Laborum range in the high vineyards of Cafayate, in Salta’s Calchaqui Valley, and shows a side of the grape few people ever meet.

Here the pure Torrontés is fermented and aged in barrel rather than tank, which changes the wine’s whole character. Instead of leading with jasmine and citrus, it gains golden colour, a fuller, rounder texture and a savoury, nutty depth, while the variety’s underlying aromatics still show through.

This is the 2015, so the wine has had time to develop, and that extra age suits the richer, oak-influenced style, drawing the elements together into a more harmonious whole.

Expect a deep golden hue, a nose of ripe stone fruit, honey and toasted, spicy oak notes, then a broad, textured palate with a long finish. It is a white with real presence, closer in weight to a barrel-aged white than to a classic fresh Torrontés, and it is best served only lightly chilled so the texture shows.

It suits food that matches its richness: roast chicken or pork, creamy pasta, or mature, hard cheese. If you enjoy fuller, barrel-influenced whites and fancy something unusual, this oak-fermented Torrontés is a genuine curiosity well worth trying, and a talking point at the table. Because it is already a decade old and made in a richer style, enjoy it for its developed, savoury character rather than expecting the fresh florals of a young Torrontés.