More than malbec: Argentina's experiential evolution
Our tastings show that Argentina is no longer only a malbec country.
Bring on the asado. Dip the chorizo in the chimichurri sauce. Take a bite of an empanada. And then have a swig of what the best Argentine wines have to offer to the world of wine and gastronomy today. We found 100s of terrific wines in this report to take you to a uniquely Argentine wine experience and back.
This year we rated around 1,800 wines and it was one of our best tastings yet for this South American vinous powerhouse. With some of the finest terroirs being discovered, blessed by a few consecutively invigorating vintages, Argentina showed wall-to-wall excellence this year with its fast-advancing winemaking and terrific value that few countries can emulate. Not many countries have trodden this far down the path of great wine in such a short time.
Last year, our Wine of the Year was awarded to a 100-pointer from Rio Negro of Patagonia, the Chacra Patagonia Treinta y Dos 2018, not even a malbec, but a pinot noir. We realize this must have meant a lot for Patagonia and Argentina, yet the message was crystal clear: Argentina is ready to blow you away with great wines that are off the charts, and they are not just malbecs or the various malbec blends that deserve buying, drinking and collecting.
We are sad about not being able to go to Argentina this year because of the pandemic, so we tasted everything in our office in Hong Kong. In addition, we did few dozen Zoom calls with the winemakers/owners behind some of these great bottles. It was an awesome experience.
Argentina has been blessed with four successful vintages – 2017, 2018 2019 and 2020.We feel that the country has reached a new summit that illustrates an incredible precision in winemaking with hundreds of outstanding quality wines at great prices and dozens of fantastic vineyard-specific wines that can compete with the best in the world. These wines are among the finest to date from Argentina, showing a breakaway from the manipulated recipe winemaking for which Argentina was known in the past. Jammy wines are dying out. Long live vibrancy, balance and flavor with precise winemaking that reveals place with nuance!
Associate editor Zekun Shuai and James Suckling enjoy a tasting trip to Argentina in 2020.
Top malbecs underscore equilibrium and refinement
Among nearly 1,800 wines reviewed for this report, 105 were scored 95 and above, representing 5.9 percent of the wines reviewed. Although no wine scored 100 points this year, our top wines from the country feature six malbecs and one chardonnay that scored 99 points. They come from prominent producers like Catena Zapata, Viña Cobos, Zuccardi and Susana Balbo. They have one thing in common: consistency of quality and their ability to deliver excellent to great wines at almost every price point.
No wines better illustrated how drinkability has enhanced top Argentine malbecs’ quality and how terroir plays a role in the nuances among different single-parcel bottlings than the highly collectible bottles from Catena Zapata, in the prestigious Adrianna Vineyard in Uco’s Gualtallary. Catena Zapata Malbec Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard Fortuna Terrae 2019, from a five-hectare parcel of deep loam soils rich in limestone with an overlay of white stones, shows the fragrant, tactile allures from malbec, which is full, tense, seamless but not chunky. Equally textured, Catena Zapata Malbec Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae 2019 is a different story from the 1,400-meter calcareous soil rich in marine deposits and microorganism, which probably explains the savory, mossy and ethereal characters in the wine. The whole cluster fermentation also enhanced these wines’ floral, herbal, and peppery character, rendering a very intellectual aspect to the experience.
“For the last three years, we have reduced maceration and increased whole cluster fermentation,” said Alejandro Vigil, the talented and insightful head winemaker behind Catena Zapata, who also runs his project El Enemigo with Adrianna Catena of Catena family. His approach to malbec renders a pinot-like sensibility and texture to malbec.
But this doesn’t mean the wines lack intensity. While the top Argentine malbecs show incredible balance, class, and harmony, their structure and concentration dialed into the center-palate fruit will keep the wine youthful for a long time. It is the natural, concentrated flavor in the grape that unties the winemakers’ hands so they can keep polishing, seeking finesse and layers while punctuating texture, freshness and drinkability, but rarely heftiness.
It’s the same at Paul Hobbs’s Viña Cobos. The famous global enologist from California co-owns Cobos and it is one of these wineries where winemaker Andres Vignoni did not dwell on the impressively hedonistic richness of their wines and completed it with some intellectual elements. Viña Cobos Malbec Los Arboles Valle de Uco Chañares Estate 2018 and Viña Cobos Malbec Mendoza Cobos 2018 are among the best Argentina offered in 2018, considered a “strong” year by Andres and his peers.
“What we underline is that while we have the concentration and definition of the wine, we try to keep the acidity and the lift. So, we are trying to make a little linear wine, not overpowering wines, and at the same time, with layers and length, making them more approachable with a focus on finesse. We are trying to make world-class wines,” said Vignoni.
James takes a Zoom call with the maker of the 2020 Wine of the Year to taste the wine and discuss how Bodega Chacra expresses its terroir in Argentina Patagonia region so well.
Watch James and Laura Catena, managing director of Catena Zapata, discuss the new release from the 2017 vintage, which struck James as the best they’ve ever made.
“Now, we pay more attention to bunch distribution. We pick a little bit earlier, and we started picking the red during the night as well. In the cellar, we started coming back to how this philosophy of the Bourgogne approach can reach malbec, that the extraction was a little bit softer, but maceration was a little bit longer. Also, the toast of our French oak decreased a little bit, too.”
Of course, vintages have framed what winemakers can do and what they’d better not do. After a series of wet and challenging vintages, winemakers finally were able to take a breath as Argentina has embraced four consecutively successful vintages: 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, and made some of the most soulful and balanced wines we have tasted from the country. But many believe the wet vintages offered a good lesson. After all, Mendoza is not known for its damp climate.
“Remember 2014, 2015, and 2016 were complicated, but they didn’t kill us and taught us a lot. 2017, 2018 and 2019 were fantastic vintages. 2020 is shaping up to be another fantastic vintage, too,” said Santiago Achaval of Matervini, who founded the winery in 2010 after his success with the prestigious Bodega Achaval Ferrer.
Catena Zapata’s Laura Catena points out that in the very cool parts of Uco, it is like farming malbec in Burgundy, which is why the very warm 2017 could turn the tables.
“Being in some warmer places could be nice when coupled with low yields, which means, in good places, 2017 was fantastic, but in bad places, it was too hot, and the frost was a problem. So, 2017 was a vintage that consistent producers made outstanding wines, but the average was not as good, which was similar to 2016, but for a different reason because of the rain,” commented Laura.
“2016 and 2017 were the two smallest crops in 50 years, one after the other, 2016 was cold and wet, 2017 was warm and dry,” said Sebastian Zuccardi of Zuccardi winery. “2013, 2018, and 2019 are classic, cool harvests; 2017, 2020 are warmer harvests; 2014, 2015, and 2016 are wetter vintages.”
Winemakers always speak very highly of the 2019 vintage. “My rank of preference would be 2019, 2018, and then 2020. 2019 shows more equilibrium, which might be slightly better than 2018, a year with many concentrated wines. 2020 was good, but it was a hot vintage,” said Trapiche’s head winemaker Daniel Pi.
It was also interesting to see how 2017s are richer and denser than the 2018s and 2019s, not only because it was a riper year with a smaller crop, but also it looks like a transitional year for many wineries from the remnants of old-school, monolithic and concentrated wines to a more balanced and transparent style, as many winemakers we spoke with declared that they want to make some linear wines.
There is a general trend of top Argentinian wines turning to a fresher, more medium-bodied, linear mode, punctuating refinement and equilibrium. The best also delivered a seamless tension and texture, almost as tender and tightened as baby skin. It is a restrained swing back to more intellectual, even academic aesthetics rather than looking purely for rich, brooding and hedonistic qualities. And people are starting to be aware that they might need to harvest earlier to shy away from over-ripeness so they could find some freshness and crunchiness in the wine.
We only hope that they don’t take it too far and begin making insipid wines. This would be a shame because we like vibrant and fruity malbecs and other Argentine wines, but not green, meager and tart wines. We have seen this happening with Chile already when some producers insisted on making thin and slightly vegetal wines. It also happened with a few winemakers in California with their quest for what they thought was balance but turned out to be the vinous equivalent of skin and bones. After all, it is all about “balance,” but winemakers are the ones to weigh and define what exactly this term means.
Burgundy grapes shine through
While there is a Burgundy approach to recalibrate on the finest malbecs seeking texture, layers, and transparency, Burgundy grapes, however, in Argentina are seriously taking hold too.
Catena Zapata Chardonnay Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard White Bones 2019, repeatedly, is the epitome of Argentina’ s best chardonnays from a 2.5-hectare block at 1450 meters with its focused perfumes underlined by beautiful ripeness and complexity built on a taut, minerally transparent texture that extends with an almost endless finish, something probably only the top Grand Cru Chablis aim to achieve. As with other single-parcel bottlings from the revered Adrianna Vineyard, only 6,000 bottles were made from this small parcel rich in calcareous deposits of limestone and marine fossils. It now ranks with the best chardonnays in the world including the best of Burgundy.
However, Rome was not built in one day. As winemaker Alejandro Vigil said, it is crucial to research the terroirs, and for chardonnay, it has been 25 years ever since they started finding the best parcel for the grape.
“It took us some 20 years to figure out about pinot noir, too, which is much longer than malbec,” said Laura Catena, who also made some beautiful pinot noirs from Mendoza with her Domaine Nico. “The fact that pinot noir reflects places so clearly in Mendoza is amazing.”
Burgundy grapes in Argentina are genuinely the rising stars when the best terroirs are allocated. Some top producers like Chacra, Domaine Nico, El Enemigo, Bemberg, Matias Riccitelli, and Vina Cobos make the best out of the bunch from either Mendoza or Patagonia, sending out the message that pinot noir and chardonnay are serious contenders for the top ranks of Argentine wine, making great wines with unique characters. Many of the pinot noirs from Rio Negro show ethereal nuances and refinement, while Mendoza insinuates inner richness through layers, elegance, and immense drinkability. (Also see our recent curated selection of 11 Great Value Argentine pinot noirs under $40)
“We are not copying anyone. Instead, we are inspired by other people, like Burgundy, and we created something completely new, which is why it’s unique,” said Piero Incisa della Rocchetta of Chacra in Rio Negro of Patagonia, an appellation now regarded as one of the most desired lands for pinot noir in Argentina, and the possibility for other grapes.
Chacra makes some of the most intellectually appealing and thought-provoking pinot noirs throughout Argentina. And they have a unique character and vibe. Perhaps it’s the incredible ecosystem Incisa della Rocchetta has created in his small patch in Patagonia. We have been there and the biodynamically farmed land has a unique energy and pureness just like the wines. You can feel it walking in the vineyards.
That might have something to do with their whole-cluster fermentation in their broad and thick-walled cement vessels and regime of used oak barrels, and above all, biodynamic farming works well for their ungrafted old vines, without which Incisa della Rocchetta believes the wines might not have such purity, transparency, energy, and crunchiness. His collaborative project on chardonnay with Burgundy winemaker Jean-Marc Roulot is equally remarkable and intellectual, producing wine with natural purity, texture, class, and verve. This is the real deal for artisanal, handmade chardonnay.
“I also think as we pick earlier, which could be a bit dangerous as you might have some green or tannic wine, but for us, the climatic conditions are helpful as the sunlight is very intense. Our vineyard is old and most importantly ungrafted, which is why I think picking early does not give us a hard and green wine, but instead, captures the energy that it is still pushing up the sap,” said Incisa della Rocchetta, before reiterating that nothing he said was utterly true but more of a collection of observations and experience – possibly the only truth in winemaking.
Premium producers zero in on terroir-specific wines with even higher vineyards
As the quality of wines increases and becomes more consistent with styles aligned with contemporary wine aesthetics and the market demands, top producers have started searching for higher, undiscovered terroirs in Mendoza Argentina.
“We just bought some land in San Pablo, which is even higher than Gualtallary, and we are planting vines there this year,” said Susana Balbo, who makes a series of wines that wowed us at almost every price point. Her best this year is still Susana Balbo Wines Malbec Agrelo Nosotros Single Vineyard Nómade 2017, but the more affordable Benmarco line is also exciting and provides exceptional value as it always does.
San Pablo and Paraje Altamira are the new Geographical Indications that could get highlighted on the map after the huge success of the best terroirs in Gualtallary – the high-altitude appellation in Tupungato with vineyards planted up to 1,600 meters, and it is known for producing finer, fresher, and minerally attractive wines thanks to its altitude and poor, complex and free-draining soils rich in calcareous limestones.
“The soil in Gualtallary doesn’t want to make heavy malbec. Instead, it makes silky, cherry-driven malbec, but on the contrary, if the soil is suited to darker, denser malbec, we will also go with it, and the result will be good,” commented Santiago Achaval of Matervini. “The philosophy is to give consumers a chance to compare the malbecs from different landscapes, so it allows the grape speak for the land, and the wine speaks for the grape.”
Sebastian Zuccardi has similar thoughts. He is happy that their wines talk about the place and the landscape now. “We focus on structure and texture, hoping the wine, in the end, shows good juiciness and some salinity. It is why we concentrate on three places today—San Pablo, Altamira, and Gualtallary, not only because they are on the west part of Uco (with enough elevation) but also the soils give the possibility to make these kinds of wines,” commented Zuccardi. “2013 was the harvest that changed our mind as we started to work toward precision, and it was 2016 that I believe our wines showed what we were saying about them because, in the beginning, the wines didn’t quite express what we say about them and what we did in the winemaking.”
Now, it is the duo of vineyard plus vintage that renders the genuine, authentic characters to the best wines from Argentina, not winemaking manipulation, not 200 percent of oak or reluctant, excessive extraction, but rather a sense of land–a place either big or small, generic or precise.
“We believe our entry-level wines should also speak the same language as our top parcel bottlings. When you go up in the line, you are getting more precision as those wines speak about a smaller, more specific place,” said Zuccardi. He also believes that in the beginning, growers need to put more time and energy into the delimitations of the best terroirs in San Pablo, Altamira, and Gualtallary.
“In Barolo, there is no official classification, but we have a clue which crus are better,” he added.
Like Zuccardi, the best producers in Argentina today are a lot more precise as they transmit a message of a few hectares of land in their flagship wines or even just a few rows of vines, yet you can have a good glimpse of them from their lower ranges, too. The wines in the lower ranges might not be as subtle or complex, but they share a similar terroir sensibility, and most importantly, they are more affordable — great value is still what makes these excellent Argentine wines exciting.
But beyond Mendoza, the journey of finding new terroirs and making more precise and better wines continues.
Salta today makes more zesty wines with a lot more vibrancy and freshness from one of the highest and wildest viticulture proposals in the world. Young generations who have taken the baton passed from their fathers’ and grandfathers’ hands have started challenging the past, trying hard to let the wines speak for the uniqueness of this extraordinary wine land. Finding some elegance is the first thing for them as we learned last year during a trip to the region.
Alejandro Vigil also believes that the “Michel Rolland effect” has reduced in Salta, where the well-recognized international winemaker consults for a few wineries besides his project in the region. “Ultra-ripeness is not Salta’s deserving style. That’s someone harvesting super late. If you have a balanced vineyard and harvest at the right time, you will taste the place from the wine,” commented Alejandro. We don’t think Michel Rolland makes wines like that anymore anyway, but it was a popular and market-driven style that further commercialized wine drinking promoted by a few critics and a lot of wine merchants in the United States at the time. Now we see the wind of change, not only in Salta and Mendoza, but also Napa, as well as many other places in the world.
Argentina’s veteran winemaker Santiago Achaval has more to add to what he told us a few years ago. “I remember I started to talk about the new generations in Salta who were willing to try everything, pushing the envelope, traveling the world, going to new places, and that was important. But beyond that, it’s the place, and it’s the freshness. What I see now, this generation has come into their maturity, they learned a lot, and they have started dropping the things that might have been too gimmicky or novel and things that don’t work. Now, they are even more concentrated on the place and finding the best grapes that suit their piece of terroir. So, I have to say I feel very happy with Argentina’s winemaking right now.”
We also see the difference in Achaval’s winemaking and he is producing more balanced wines than in the past like many in his peer group.
This transparency in winemaking is also a catalyst for wine producers wishing to continue to search for new areas to make wine, and we are enjoying hitching a ride on their road to discovery! La Rioja is another under-discovered region with different soils and some high-altitude vineyards. “It is a forgotten region known for the bulk wines, but in the high-altitude sites, some particular places could make great wines,” said Laura Catena, who is currently on a mission with Alejandro Vigil to explore the terroirs there. La Rioja also has an individual identity with lots of local farming cultures, and Laura Catena told us that she very much enjoyed working with the local people there.
The same is true to San Juan, a region likely overshadowed by its righteous neighbor Mendoza, where Valle de Pedernal, the highest appellation there at around 1,300 meters, is among the most exciting new areas known for its dark flintstones in the soil framed by dry and cool climates with intense sunshine and formidable diurnal range of temperatures. We found some impressive syrah, malbec, and cabernets this year. But over the years, we feel San Juan has been slowly fine-tuning their wines, too, following Mendoza’s route. While they extend their advantages of making glowingly rich and powerful reds to full play with a mineral sensibility, many wines have picked up more freshness and elegance, too, indicating a potential that is still hard to fathom shortly.
Diversity glows as drinkability gets aired
This year, we found many intriguing and exciting new wines, too. Some are innovative projects driven by the momentum of natural and orange wine movements across the world, centering around the tangy and zesty chenin blanc and complex, textured semillon. Some have gone through skin maceration, some directly fermented with the skins in amphoras and aged from months to even a year.
“Unlike torrontes and criolla, semillon has very thin skins. For me, it’s hard to believe it spent one year on the skins,” said Daniel Pi about his new semillon wine Trapiche Semillón Argentina Lateral 2019 with a tiny production of only 2,000 bottles.
The consistency and quality in winemaking in Argentina continue at a fast rate as winemakers’ knowledge in regions, areas, soils, and microclimates grows with their quest, passion, and curiosity in new methods in vineyards and wineries.
Matias Riccitelli is one of the pioneers in making innovative yet honest and serious wines with an array of grapes from Mendoza and Patagonia. His insight and prowess lead him to a less traveled road, inspiring many more young winemakers to think in an independent mindset.
“Now everyone wants to make pinot noirs in Patagonia, but I just want something different, and it’s all about the old vines there,” said Matias Riccitelli in a Zoom call. His insight and effort panned out with a line-up of eye-opening wines—from macerated semillon, skin-fermented chenin blanc with amphora, mineral, and pure merlot to austerely attractive, drinkable trousseau/bastardo.
“There are no more than 40 hectares of bastardo in Argentina, and all of them are in Patagonia, and all of them 40-50 years old vines, too,” said Riccitelli, which is why the idea of making wines out of this rare, dark cherry fruited and sometimes rustic grape from Jura is so unique and inviting. We know producers like Aniello and Miras in Patagonia also farm and make some very lovely, succulent and easy-drinking trousseaus that are great with food.
Over the last few years, we have witnessed the rise of grapes that might not have the depth and potential to age, but they offer cheerful, light-hearted wines with immense drinkability and honest characters—grapes like pais in Chile, (criolla chica in Argentina) or mission in the US and Mexico have gained popularity among consumers and producers. Some are made as a crisp, light red, some as rosé, a few even as blanc de noir.
“I am super excited by the criollas. Those vineyards are mixed with different genetics and make super refreshing wines, although they don’t have the pedigree in terms of the ageability that a malbec, a pinot noir, or a cabernet has,” said Laura Catena.
Santiago Achaval feels the same. “The movement began when many young people started making wines from grapes like criolla, which is mission. It doesn’t have much depth, texture, and complexity, but it has freshness and drinkability, and many consumers are fond of this style now, as they could grab a bottle to go with asado that cleanses the palates for barbecues without worrying about the nuances and things like that,” he said.
This positive feedback from the market means a lot more, not only with grapes like criolla, but the idea of making fresher, more drinkable wines found a place for malbecs, too.
Akin to criolla, torrontes is another local grape worth giving another shot. The crossing between criolla and muscat is never shy of perfumes, although if picked too late or too warm, the exotic scents could be too perfumed, spicy, and blunt, sometimes a little soapy, too. But when harvested at the right time from the right place, the restraint and tautness can render a nice floral overlay, tangy orange fragrance with real class and finesse, too.
“It’s essential that torrontes is harvested at the right time to get a vibrant and beautiful wine,” said Susana Balbo, who always makes interesting ones from $12 bottles to expensive blends.
While Susana Balbo makes an array of excellent expressions of torrontes in Mendoza, and the best coming from Uco, El Esteco Torrontés Valle de Cafayate Old Vines 1945 2020 is the epitome of the grape in terms of serious quality and value in Cafayate, Salta. Alejandro Vigil, however, sees the potential of the grape in the coveted Gualtallary, where he thinks torrontes could be made drier, classier and more withheld, nothing in-your-face, “just like a dry German white,” to use his words.
Yet, Alejandro believes his most exciting projects recently are, however, chenin blanc and semillon, which also nod to Matias Riccitelli’s work in Patagonia on these varieties. A few other outstanding producers also work with semillons, including Mendel in Mendoza and Noemia in Patagonia. In fact, Roberto de Mota from Mendel was among the first in Argentina to set the quality bar for Argentine semillon.
Today, Wapisa of Tapiz is making some outstanding sauvignon blancs from Patagonia’s Atlantic area in San Javier where the wine shows great balance between some tropical fruit and herbal, flinty characters. Daniel Pi also made a deliciously tangy and saline albarino in the coastal Chapadmalal near Mar de Plata, only a few kilometers away from the sea, where Trapiche has already worked with a few vintages of chardonnay, pinot noir, and sauvignon blanc.
“This year, we planted some mencia there, too, and we will have some wines soon,” said Pi, also disclosing that Trapiche is also going down south to Patagonia to make wines as well.
All this means that wineries that still adhere to low production costs or follow a recipe and commodity winemaking mentality are getting left behind. And as much as we love to see Argentina swinging back to balance and freshness, and jammy, syrupy and overripe wines are less of a problem now, some producers have shown little interest in consistently making better wines, as some lacked intensity and definition, especially those from 2020, leading to many light and unambitious wines.
Of course, most of these wines are entry-level bottlings that will soon be released. But we couldn’t help wondering if the recent quarantine circumstances chipped away at the quality of some wines, hindering some winery work. Selling at such low prices often means they can’t afford to make better wines.
Moreover, we appreciated hearing from Laura Catena that 2020 was a year of their winemaking director Alejandro Vigil taking care of people, reassuring the team, making phone calls to everyone, and assuring them with the safety precautions. It was a rough year for everyone and we are happy it’s over!
The silver lining: Argentina is a fully-fledged quality wine country now. Its premium wines are getting more precise and drinkable than ever as they transmit the message of specific parcels and are getting much more complete and rounded. Meanwhile, Argentina is catching up with its neighbor on the other side of the Andes with diversity, and the journey of exploiting new possibilities, both grapes, and terroirs, is underway.
Best of all, as quality goes up and diversity flourishes, Argentina remains one of the best value zones to delve into and explore. Last year, Argentine wines also took 20 places in our Top 100 Value Wines of 2020. Now the problem is that consumers may take Argentina’s great value for granted, forgetting the country’s ability to make super-premium wines that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best in the world, and not just with malbec. But before we get too sermonic, let’s not forget it’s a country of asado, mate tea, football, tango and one of our favorite singers, Mercedes Sosa, too. It’s a country exuding passion and life. And we feel the vibe and the love with every great glass of Argentine wine.
– Zekun Shuai, associate editor, and James Suckling, editor