Argentina

Our intention here is not to attempt a detailed academic study of Argentinian wine, there are plenty of good sources for that, but rather to give you our take on Argentina drawing upon our 15 years’ experience importing wine from there. Inevitably we will make some generalisations and will greatly simplify a complex and fascinating story of wine heritage and culture – otherwise you’ll be here all day!

A lot has changed since our first buying trip to Mendoza in 2008 when we began forging strong relationships with our wineries (albeit as a different company back then), many of whom we still work with today. At that time Argentina was something of a new kid on the block, and far more red wine dominated. The wines could reasonably be said to occupy a fairly typical New World stylistic glove – soft, ripe, dense, relatively high in alcohol and with the use of oak very much in evidence, often far too much so in retrospect. Today, as a true player on the world wine stage, despite still only representing a small part of the UK market at around 3%, Argentina’s wines are very much in tune with the modern palate and often lead the field with innovation. As well as retaining consistently beautiful concentration, the wines of Argentina can now be described as elegant, well balanced and finely judged, with oak in a supporting role rather than bursting a hole through the net.

The modern Argentine wine industry is still very young, with exports only really starting in earnest in the 1990s following – for one time only perhaps – the lead set by its neighbours on the other side of the Andes. The timing was perfect. The wine world was opening up to ever larger sections of populations throughout the world with the UK being no exception, and the styles of wine were extremely approachable and consumer friendly. To this day, however, Argentina has never enjoyed the kind of mass market share taken up by countries like Australia and Chile. We have our theories about why that is; let’s just say it’s probably no bad thing!

WATER – one of the country’s most precious resources and essential for growing grapes, obviously; a challenge when doing so in a desert climate with exceptionally low rainfall. Almost all of Argentina’s vines are irrigated, commonly and famously, using snowmelt water from the Andes. Even today one can see complex irrigation systems that were originally engineered by indigenous peoples many centuries ago. Rainfall is naturally very low and the main liquid threat comes in the form of violent hail storms which can destroy whole vineyards very quickly.

SUNSHINE – in our changing world where the threat of global warming is evermore in evidence, Argentina’s blissfully reliable climate and consistency from vintage to vintage is not what it once was but this is still a country that enjoys a lot of sunshine, particularly from October to March when grapes are forming and ripening. With the advance global warming, Argentina’s vineyards are more prone than before to frost damage.

PEOPLE – last but certainly not least, it is the people themselves whose lives and endeavours we celebrate when enjoying these wonderful wines. Many of our winemakers are from families whose heritage dates back to the original influx of immigrants from Europe, people with wine for blood. Some have joined the Argentine wine scene more recently, seeing its huge potential. Today, Argentinian winemakers are very much in demand all over the world as consultants and a tremendous cross-fertilisation of ideas and cultures has taken place over the last three decades to help equip Argentina for even greater things to come.

There are, of course, many more things to consider, things that make Argentine wine so special and unique, but it is the wines themselves that we all prefer to concentrate on. Salud!