Covering the austral section of South America, spanning the southernmost areas of Chile and Argentina, Patagonia is a region of extreme, diverse landscapes.

Strong winds and wide diurnal temperature ranges make it a challenging yet appealing place for viticulture – it’s certainly not for the faint of heart.

The region’s breathtaking terroirs yield both singular expressions of the countries’ more popular grapes and unlikely South American iterations of varieties mostly associated with classic cold-climate regions.

Without the sheltering effect of the Andes mountains, strong winds blow unhindered. Meanwhile, high latitudes expose the vines to intense UV radiation throughout the growing season’s long days.

These conditions tease grapes into producing thicker skins while developing diverse aromatic compounds, and the bitterly cold nights help to preserve acidity.

Put it all together and you have a winemaker’s dream – for those willing to embrace the challenge.

Scroll down for notes and scores of 12 polished wines from rugged Patagonia

Precocious complexity

Due to its trying natural conditions, as well as its remoteness, Patagonia is a geography in which viticulture at scale isn’t easily profitable – or, in some areas, even possible.

Hence the region draws winemakers with an appetite for the unique, the unusual and the hard-won.

The singular, world-class wines the region produces have made it one of South America’s most alluring.

But the attention it draws is in inverse proportion to its area under vine, representing less than 2% of Argentina’s vineyards (data for Chilean Patagonia aren’t available).

‘Many ask me whether I see a great future for Patagonia wines. My reply is: no,’ says Felipe Tosso, who, as chief winemaker at Ventisquero, has led the inception of Kosten, the Chilean group’s foray into Patagonia and, at 46.3°S, the world’s southernmost vineyard (at Chile Chico on the southern shore of Lake General Carrera, and right next to the border with Argentina).

‘There is a tiny – but fantastic – future: outstanding wines from small projects. In such dramatic terroir, the vines achieve a superior potential, even at a young age.’

Juan Pablo Murgia, of Otronia, concurs: ‘We see the balance of old vines in young plants. The way vines adapt to the Patagonian conditions is incredible.’

Preserving memory

Most of Patagonia’s vineyards are located in the Argentine provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén with 3,341ha split between the two. Further south, over and beyond the 45th parallel, the province of Chubut accounts for a mere 117ha.

Extreme viticulture notwithstanding, some of the biggest challenges of making wine in Patagonia are operational.

Far away from the main viticultural and commercial hubs, it’s not easy to consolidate resources or find skilled staff.

Many projects are, therefore, intriguing offshoots of established brands based in better-known regions – wines that reflect a desire to explore other realms of possibility, articulate a different oenologic vocabulary and acknowledge a more diverse past… and future.

For Matías Riccitelli, the maverick winemaker best known for his namesake project in Mendoza’s Luján de Cuyo, making wine in Patagonia emerged as a way to harness a unique and overlooked ‘climatic and patrimonial potential’.

As Mendoza established itself as Argentina’s wine-producing core and settlers stopped producing wine for self-consumption, the vineyards of northern Patagonia lost their appeal, resulting in a patchwork of old, ungrafted plots of myriad varieties.

Riccitelli sees his Patagonian range as part of an effort to preserve an important part of South American wine heritage, as well as a unique genetic diversity: ‘We have inimitable terroirs with a singular climate and incredible clonal diversity of different varieties (and also field blends) with a long – sometimes forgotten – history here. They produce wines with a particular expressiveness.’

Beyond known limits

Further south, in Chubut and Chilean Patagonia, winemakers are pushing the known limits of viticulture, planting in areas never before considered suitable for vines.

Murgia (pictured, above), head winemaker at Mendoza’s Bodega Argento, was forced to question his experience and learnings when leading the establishment of Otronia, a sibling project in Sarmiento, Chubut, at 45.6°S, more than 1,100km south of Patagonia’s northern edge.

‘I had to learn a new type of viticulture – of cold and winds,’ he says.

Since its first commercial vintage in 2017, Otronia has been consistently producing award-winning wines. Murgia unassumingly attributes the quality of the wines to the outstanding, if relatively meagre, fruit Patagonia yields.

‘Patagonia is synonymous with beauty and singularity, which translate into the unique character of the wines,’ he says.

‘This, along with the many challenges of wine production [in the region], means that there’s little sense producing anything but top wines.’

Tosso echoes this feeling and admits that succeeding in Patagonia immediately puts winemakers in a different league.

‘Making wine in such challenging conditions is hard and expensive. To see our efforts validated by the quality of the wines feels like a great achievement,’ he concludes.

Tosso likewise stresses the focus and self-assurance needed to grow grapes in Patagonia.

While he can plan for harvest with a degree of comfort for other Ventisquero wines, at Kosten, experience and planning only go so far: with frost always imminent, decisions need to be made quickly and determinedly – and often remotely.

Patagonia’s wines might be hard-won for producers and consumers alike, but, like the region’s landscapes, they afford experiences that are worth the willingness to embark on an unexpected, memorable journey.

Taste of the wild: A fascinating 12 from Patagonia

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In the rugged, windswept plains of Patagonia, where vineyards cling to the banks of the snaking Río Negro, an unlikely partnership has flourished.

Jean-Marc Roulot, a sixth-generation vigneron from Meursault in Burgundy, and Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, grandson of the visionary behind Tuscany’s legendary Sassicaia, came together in Argentina to craft world-class Chardonnay.

Their collaboration, rooted in friendship and a shared sense of adventure, blends centuries of tradition with a bold leap into the unknown.

Scroll down to see notes and scores of five exquisite Bodega Chacra Chardonnays

While their family legacies precede them – the mastery of Burgundy whites passed down to Jean-Marc and Piero’s inheritance of Tuscan innovation – this partnership brings a surprising twist: a commitment to making some of the world’s finest Chardonnay in the uncharted terroir of southern Argentina.

They make a compelling duo. Piero is an extrovert, brimming with Italian charisma and charm, while Jean-Marc is thoughtful and introspective, his responses shaped by decades of careful observation as a renowned stage and screen actor.

Yet, their differences complement one another, united by a shared hunger for discovery and an unwavering pursuit of perfection.

The story of how these two wine-world titans found themselves in Patagonia is as captivating as the wines themselves.

Forging a new friendship

Piero’s and Jean-Marc’s paths first crossed in the early 2000s. At the time, Piero was living in New York, immersed in its vibrant wine scene.

Having befriended many of the top sommeliers, he often joined them on buying trips to Burgundy. By then, Jean-Marc had already solidified his reputation as one of Burgundy’s most celebrated vignerons.

After taking over Domaine Roulot in 1989 following his father’s untimely death, he transformed it into one of Meursault’s most prestigious estates, renowned for its pure, expressive Chardonnays.

Unsurprisingly, Roulot’s wines were high on the wishlists of US sommeliers, and it wasn’t long before Piero and Jean-Marc formed a bond.

‘We became friends because of our shared family wine heritage and, of course, the common language,’ recalls Piero, a polyglot fluent in four languages.

While Jean-Marc was deeply rooted in Burgundy’s storied vineyards, Piero was forging a very different path. Eschewing the familiar comforts of Tuscany, he ventured to Patagonia, where he acquired an abandoned estate in the Río Negro valley.

It was a daring move, reviving old Pinot Noir vines in one of the world’s most remote winemaking regions – a gamble that didn’t go unnoticed by Jean-Marc.

‘When I tasted Piero’s Pinot Noir from Patagonia, I could see he was doing the opposite of what I expected from a Pinot Noir from South America,’ says Jean-Marc. ‘I trusted his focus from the start.’

See Amanda Barnes MW’s notes and scores for Bodega Chakra’s latest-release Pinot Noirs

A proposition

Their friendship took an unexpected turn over a wine-fuelled dinner with friends. When Piero casually mentioned his desire to produce Chardonnay at Chacra, Jean-Marc jokingly replied, ‘Why don’t you ask me?’

What began as a quip quickly became a serious proposition, spurred on by mutual friends encouraging them both to take the leap.

‘I wasn’t ready,’ Piero admits. ‘It was one thing having Jean-Marc visit Sassicaia, an already illustrious vineyard, but the idea of bringing someone of his calibre to Chacra was daunting. I felt an enormous responsibility. Were we good enough?’

Jean-Marc, on the other hand, was ready. Having already broken conventions in Burgundy, he was eager for a new challenge. Though deeply rooted in Meursault, he had begun to entertain the idea of making wine beyond his estate.

Offers from other regions, including Mâcon, had come his way, but none truly captured his imagination.

‘To make wine in Mâcon wasn’t an adventure – of course it would have been different, but it was too close to home. Patagonia, on the other hand, was something completely different. It was an adventure.’

By 2016, the project was underway. Chardonnay was grafted onto old Merlot rootstocks at the Mainqué estate and Jean-Marc officially joined the partnership. The following year, Bodega Chacra had its first vintage of Chardonnay.

On the edge of the world

The distance between Meursault and Mainqué spans 11,926km – and the two are worlds apart in winemaking realities.

Mainqué, nestled in the Río Negro valley, boasts a unique terroir of old vines and cool desert winds, offering an environment as untamed as it is promising for fine Chardonnay. But Patagonia’s isolation presents undeniable challenges.

‘In Beaune, you have everything you need at your fingertips,’ Jean-Marc notes. ‘In Mainqué, you have nothing – if the press breaks, the harvest stops.’

This reality became painfully clear during their first harvest together when the electricity cut out, bringing everything to a standstill. For Jean-Marc, who places meticulous importance on press techniques, it was nothing short of catastrophic.

‘He asked me when it was coming back. I said, “I have no idea, we just have to wait!”,’ Piero recalls with a nervous laugh. By the next harvest, Piero had a generator waiting for Jean-Marc’s arrival – a precaution that has since expanded to three generators on the estate.

Learning curve

It has been a learning curve for both winemakers, but one they’ve embraced as a journey of discovery, driven by their shared commitment to organic viticulture and a deep respect for the land.

‘Every year, we change something – brick by brick,’ Jean-Marc reflects, clearly relishing the challenge. ‘I think it takes at least 10 vintages to become comfortable. I couldn’t just copy and paste my Chardonnay programme from Burgundy, but with time, I have felt more confident with how to approach this terroir’s wines.’

Now, eight vintages in, the wines reflect Jean-Marc’s growing confidence in Patagonia, where he spends a month each year working closely with Piero and the team.

The Mainqué range offers vibrant, approachable wines with tangy salinity and verve, balanced with appealing, fresh fruit that makes them enjoyable now.

The Chacra line, on the other hand, is more complex, with powerful length and textural layers that hint at its ageing potential, teasing you for opening the bottle too soon.

The precision and purity already in the bottle are a remarkable testament to the evolving synergy between the winemakers.

A human adventure

For Piero, having Jean-Marc’s experienced palate at Chacra is invaluable. ‘The feedback he provides is irreplaceable,’ Piero says.

For Jean-Marc, Chacra has offered something equally profound – it has rekindled a connection to nature that he feels that Burgundy has lost. ‘In Chacra, nature is still working – you feel it,’ he says. ‘The light, the air, the animals. It’s a reminder of what we once had in Meursault. We need to learn to reconnect.’

The wines, too, reflect this special connection that both Jean-Marc and Piero feel with the rugged landscapes of Patagonia and with each other.

‘It’s rare to find a peer you can work with in this way,’ Piero reflects. ‘This partnership is about trust, friendship and laughter – a lot of laughter. It’s about the enrichment that comes from truly working together.’

Their unexpected partnership proves that great wine is not only a product of the land – it’s the result of shared dreams, respect and a touch of adventure. As Jean-Marc puts it, ‘It’s not just about the wine. It’s about the human adventure behind it.’

Patagonian partnership: The Chacra style in five Chardonnays

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Few winemakers have the opportunity to be pioneers in new regions and fewer still in regions of extreme terroirs, where textbook viticulture doesn’t apply. Perhaps none see such groundbreaking efforts yield world-class wines in less than a decade.

However, all of this is true of Juan Pablo Murgia, who, as head winemaker of the Avinea group, led the inception of its limit-defying Otronia project in Argentine Patagonia (see below).

But Murgia’s trajectory has been defined foremost by consistency and commitment rather than the exceptional opportunities he’s had – and that he has embraced with a calm, assertive focus.

Son of Mendoza

Born in Luján de Cuyo, in the heart of Mendoza, Murgia grew up among Malbec vines. The grandson and son of grape growers, he went on to study oenology and started his career at the local research outpost of the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria.

After two seasons at different wineries, he joined Carlos Pulenta’s Bodega Vistalba, located in the town of the same name, staying for seven years.

While Murgia was there, the prolific entrepreneur Alejandro Bulgheroni became involved in the venture, taking a 50% stake to add to his growing portfolio of estates, which would eventually come to include properties in Argentina, Bordeaux, Italy, Napa and beyond.

The relationship with Alejandro Bulgheroni Family Vineyards (ABFV) flourished, and in 2010, Murgia became engaged in earnest in the development of its concerns in Argentina, under the umbrella of Grupo Avinea.

Its flagship projects – Bodega Argento (Mendoza), bought by Bulgheroni in 2012, and Otronia (Patagonia) – projected Murgia as a rising star on the Argentine wine scene.

Blank slate

When it changed ownership, Argento already existed as a volume brand. Murgia’s brief was to turn it into a fully fledged estate delivering organic-certified wines, working primarily with estate-owned fruit.

He oversaw the planting of vineyards in Alto Agrelo (232ha), Ugarteche (22ha), Altamira (21ha), Cruz de Piedra (12ha) and Carrizal (99ha).

During Murgia’s tenure – and under the guidance of winemaker Alberto Antonini, who consults across ABFV’s portfolio – Argento has become Argentina’s largest organic-certified producer.

The evolution of Murgia’s career overlaps with that of his relationship with Antonini, whom Murgia considers both his master and friend.

It’s easy to see a lineage: Murgia’s demeanour and approach echo Antonini’s matter-of-fact elegance, poised precision and relentless focus on terroir.

Yet Murgia has a personal attachment to his role that brings a cerebral viscerality to his words while also defining the stylistic thread that runs through his wines.

To the extreme

It was Otronia that forced Murgia to fully flex his viticultural muscles and to reconsider his classroom knowledge. The project’s inception happened alongside Argento’s, but it took longer for the vines to become fully productive, with the first wines released from the 2017 vintage.

Located on the shores of lake Musters in Sarmiento, in Chubut province, Patagonia, straddling parallel 45° 33’, the 52ha of vines grow on an extreme terroir defined by relentless winds, intense light and brutal temperature fluctuations.

‘[The border of] Patagonia is 1,000km from my home [in Mendoza]. Sarmiento is another 1,000km further,’ Murgia explains, giving context to what it means to work in the world’s southernmost wine sub-region.

‘It’s a singular landscape – almost untouched and extremely powerful.’

Two Juan Pablo Murgia wines to track down

Otronia, Chardonnay, Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina 2022 94pts

Focused and layered, with expressive smoky notes of flint and gunpowder over intense lemon zest, white grapefruit, crunchy pear and camomile notes. Juicy citrus drives an unctuous palate. A strong, assertive acid line held by a mineral backbone. Long, with lingering white grapefruit, wet stone and aniseed notes. Organic.

Argento, Single Block Block #1 Malbec, Paraje Altamira, Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina 2021 94pts

Complex and characterful, with an alluring, fresh nose weaving together wet stone, petrichor, red cherry, plum, redcurrant, wild rocket and tomato leaf. Very pure fruit on the palate, supported by a beautiful tannic framework – fine and mineral yet muscular. The fleshy fruit fills the palate, held by a crunchy, textural grip. Long on the finish, with lingering tomato leaf and cherry pit notes. Organic.

Nature and nurture

Bulgheroni’s idea to explore (and push) the southern limit for viticulture came with good expectations. ‘But the team did not anticipate the qualitative level we’ve achieved,’ confesses Murgia. ‘The ambition was there – that’s why [at Otronia] we’ve taken precision viticulture and the concept of micro-terroir to the extreme.’

The vineyard is divided into 52 parcels, planted at high density with specific clonal and rootstock selections and harvested and vinified separately. ‘But for all our efforts and strict working philosophy – organic and now incorporating biodynamic practices – it’s also a function of the energy and magic of the place,’ Murgia concludes.

‘Respect for a place, precision viticulture and a superior terroir – that’s what makes special wines.’

There’s an interesting analogy here with Murgia himself, with his unassuming combination of technical expertise and visceral connection with the projects he’s involved in.

He evokes his childhood memories without losing sight of the inevitable technical demands of his work or taking any achievements for granted – and acknowledging the role others have had in shaping his opportunities and career.

At 41, with 20 (professional) harvests behind him, Murgia is a son of Mendoza, as a man as well as a winemaker. On the other hand, he has become the father of a new, unlikely terroir, whose Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs and Merlots now regularly feature among South America’s best – not least in Decanter’s tastings.

A product of nature but also, no doubt, of knowledgeable nurture.

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Three adventurous winemakers are braving unlikely regions – from French Polynesia and Patagonia to Sweden and Iran – to prove that some grapes can thrive against the odds. Welcome to extreme winemaking.

Winemakers have long been known and admired for their intrepid spirit; the willingness to push both boundaries and envelopes, creating wines in ways and locations that defy logic. Here is a trio of the very finest at work today…

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores of two fabulous, extreme wines

Otronia

Argentinian Patagonia

Story Amanda Barnes

Patagonia is itself extreme. The claw-like peninsula that unites Chile and Argentina at the fin del mundo (‘end of the world’), Patagonia remains one of the sparsest-populated regions on the planet.

Its pervasive climate, dramatic beauty and remote nature has made it the subject of adventures and pioneering tales for centuries. South America’s winemakers don’t lack thirst for adventure, either, and their pioneering projects in Patagonia make extreme viticulture feel like a sport.

Aurelio Montes’ new vineyard in the watery archipelago of Chiloé, a remote set of islands better known for whale-watching, is only reached by boat or air, while Fernando Alameda’s new project in Chile Chico breaks all records for southerly viticulture at 46° south.

On the Argentinian side of the border, new vineyards in Chubut province extend east from the Andean foothills to the coast. One in Bahia Bustamante has water lapping at its feet and rheas, penguins and sea lions as companions. These are just a handful of the extreme vineyards that are set to see fruit in the coming vintages.

Ferocious winds

One intrepid project, though, is already seeing results, and they are nothing short of thrilling.

Otronia is currently the world’s southernmost commercial vineyard and winery, at 45°33 south, beating all the vineyards of Central Otago in New Zealand. But it isn’t just the latitude that makes this 51ha vineyard at Sarmiento in the steppes of Argentinian Patagonia extreme.

The winds here can hurtle through at above 100kph. Extreme projects such as Otronia – in the far south of Chubut – require guts and, let’s be honest, money. The man with both is Argentinian billionaire and oil magnate Alejandro Bulgheroni.

His dream team of consultants – soil and terroir expert Pedro Parra and oenologist-producer Alberto Antonini – were sceptical when he asked them to plant there in 2011. But the vines not only survived, they surpassed all expectations.

‘Otronia’s terroir is extreme in many ways,’ explains winemaker Juan Pablo Murgia, who also manages Bulgheroni’s estate in Mendoza, Bodega Argento, some 2,000km away. ‘Our average annual temperature is just 11.5°C. We’re also in the heart of Patagonia, and winds sweep through with ferocity and frequency.’

Frost protection has been a major outlay, but a greater challenge lay in the wind breaks. After a couple of years of trial and error, defence lines of cherry trees and nets have made it possible for the vines to withstand the gales. Murgia sees that wind, now it has been tempered, as an asset: ‘It allows us to work organically, which is great.’

Brilliant south

While the team knew even before planting that the lakeside soils of clay, gravels, fragmented mother rock and sand would proffer distinctive wines, it is the luminosity that has been the greatest surprise.

‘At first we thought we would only be able to make sparkling wine here,’ admits Murgia. ‘But in fact, all varieties ripen well, even Merlot. We have a really high luminosity at this latitude, so despite the cold temperatures we get great phenolic maturation and alcohol levels.’

The Chardonnay is the perfect case in point – thrilling with its laser-like acidity, but ripe and full-bodied with an intensity rarely seen in cool climates. There’s nothing lean about it.

Otronia’s 45° Rugientes white blend of Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris is a far-flung doppelgänger for Alsace; and its Pinot Noir is resplendent in forest floor, floral and tart, red cherry nuances. The original hunch for good sparkling wine was also spot on, proved by an excellent duo of vibrant, traditional-method brut nature wines.

Otronia is no doubt extreme, but it is also quite brilliant. And it has set the benchmark for what looks to be a brilliant future for Patagonian wine. ‘The wines continue to surprise me,’ adds Murgia. ‘They are unlike any others, and have a unique personality which reflects extreme Patagonia.’

Vin de Tahiti

Tuamoto Archipelago, South Pacific

Story Anna Lee C Iijima

From the air, Rangiroa looks like a necklace of thin, cylindrical beads cast haphazardly into the ocean.

An hour’s flight from Tahiti or Bora Bora, Rangiroa is the largest atoll island of French Polynesia, best known for its pearl farms, scuba diving and coconut groves. It’s also one of the most unlikely winemaking regions in the world.

Atolls are the ring-shaped reefs of coral that form over millions of years along the periphery of oceanic volcanoes. After the ancient volcano recedes into the sea, the coral remains, forming a string of islets that circle a lagoon.

Vin de Tahiti, the only winery in French Polynesia, is situated on one of these narrow islets and is accessible only by boat. Its estate, Domaine Ampélidacées, is a patch of vineyards and coconut groves that nearly kiss the water at their fringes. The lagoon is just 100m away, the ocean only a little further at 400m.

The winery was conceived by Dominique Auroy, a French engineer who was sent to French Polynesia late in 1965 and settled there from the following year at the age of 23. Auroy’s entrepreneurial ventures extend from the production of hydroelectric energy in French Polynesia and Africa to wine imports, bottled water, wine and, most recently, rum.

Auroy ‘likes to do what’s impossible’, says Sébastien Thépénier, an oenologist and partner in the venture, who joined the domaine in 2002. ‘Dominique could buy grand cru Burgundy or Bordeaux, but he felt it would be even better to make wine here.’

Exceptional circumstances

Auroy began testing cuttings of European grape vines throughout the five archipelagos of French Polynesia in the early 1990s. Despite Rangiroa’s tropical climate, its relatively drier conditions make it one of the few places in French Polynesia suitable for viticulture. ‘There’s less humidity in the soil here and, while the climate is very hot, less sun.’

Key to Rangiroa’s viticultural viability is its exceptionally well-draining limestone soils – coral skeletons degraded over millennia into fine sand and rock. ‘We have perhaps the chalkiest soil in the world,’ says Thépénier, who came to Rangiroa from Burgundy after answering an online ad for a viticulturist. ‘In some ways, the soil resembles the Kimmeridgian marl of Chablis; you can taste a similar minerality.’

But beyond similar soils, Rangiroa could be a different planet from Burgundy. There’s no winter here. Temperatures rarely drop below 24°C, so vines ignore their normal vegetative cycle and remain evergreen instead of going dormant. New growth must be triggered by pruning, which is often done simultaneous with harvest. And harvest is every five months.

In the early days, vineyard workers battled wild pigs and land crabs that tunnel into the vineyard from the water table underneath to eat young vines and grapes.

The pigs have been culled by hunters, but the domaine has eased into coexistence with the crabs.‘Growing vines on an atoll seems crazy,’ says Thépénier. ‘I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had to see for myself whether it was viable. If it wasn’t, I figured at least I’d get to visit Tahiti.’

The first commercial vintage, of just 600 bottles, was 2002. Today, the vineyard has doubled in size to 6ha, typically producing 35,000 bottles of white and rosé. Plantings are mainly Carignan, which is vinified as a white wine, along with Muscat Hamburg, also known as Black Muscat, and Italia – a cross of Bicane and Muscat Hamburg that’s popular as a table grape.

Harvests are timed early to maintain good acidity. ‘It’s a difficult balance in a tropical climate,’ says Thépénier, ‘but we’ve never had to acidify.’

Sustainability commitment

Many of the vines are now 20-25 years old, ungrafted because there is no threat of phylloxera in coral sand. Because of the low humidity ‘there’s no mildew, only a touch of oidium’, says Thépénier. ‘We don’t need many treatments because the environment is in a good balance.’

Viticulture on an atoll requires a deep commitment to ecological sustainability, suggests Thépénier, which is why the domaine began a conversion to organics in 2010. ‘The vineyard is not certified yet, but all the treatments are organic,’ he says. The soil is given structure by pruned grape vines that are shredded at the end of each harvest, and fertilised with seaweed and other organic enhancements.

Still, no wine region can totally escape the effects of climate change. Rangiroa and other atoll islands face the threat of marine flooding and coastal erosion as the level of both the sea and lagoon are rising.

Last year ‘the level of the lagoon rose by 1.5m’, recounts Thépénier. ‘Suddenly all the vines were underwater during their green cycle.’ The water receded a week later, he says, but the vines stopped growing, making it challenging to ripen grapes to maturity.

In response, the domaine planted a 200m barrier of vetiver, a perennial grass, and wheat. Thus far, it’s proving an effective defence against the flooding.

Vin de Tahiti is intentionally scarce beyond French Polynesia, with 90% of the wine marketed and consumed within the territory (so scarce in fact, that we were unable to source a sample in time to write a tasting note for this article – and sadly editorial budgets don’t stretch to a trip to Tahiti to try it). ‘Our priorities are local production and distribution,’ says Thépénier.

Drood

Persian wine made in Sweden

Story Åsa Johansson

Making wine in Sweden may seem crazy enough; making wine in Sweden with grapes from Iran even more so.

Meet Shahram Soltani, the owner of Drood, who makes Persian wine in Sweden – showing that crazy ideas can become a reality. ‘When I asked my brother in Iran to pick the grapes, freeze them and send them to Sweden, he thought I had lost my mind,’ laughs Soltani.

A petrol engineer by trade, he came to Sweden from Iran with his wife, who studied at the university in Kalmar, a city in southern Sweden. There is a great interest in wine production in Scandinavia currently – including several ambitious projects where Swedish wineries are cultivating mostly PIWI varieties (hybrid, with varying properties of resistance) – but one can’t help but wonder what sparked the idea of bringing grapes from Iran to Sweden.

Honouring tradition

‘I had opened a cafe in Sweden, but I started to dream about continuing my family’s – and country’s – winemaking tradition in some way,’ Soltani says.

He explains that, before the revolution in 1979, which transformed the country into an Islamic republic, the wine industry was thriving in Iran.

Today, wine production and consumption of alcoholic beverages are forbidden, and grapes are grown in Iran only for making raisins or grape juice. Consequently, many vineyards have been abandoned since 1979, as investment in the wine industry disappeared.

Soltani sources his grapes from the Zagros mountains in southwestern Iran, from high-altitude vineyards (2,000m-2,400m). The harvested grapes are loaded onto trucks, frozen to -25°C and transported to Sweden, a two-week journey. ‘We use native grapes including Samarghandi and Lorkosh, from pre-phylloxera old vines, to make two red wines, a white and an orange wine,’ Soltani explains.

Bureaucratic hurdles

There have been many challenges along the way. ‘Everyone thinks the hardest part has to do with the Islamic Republic, but we have no problems in Iran – we’re just exporting grapes to Sweden,’ Soltani says. However: ‘The biggest challenge has been the bureaucracy with the Swedish monopoly and the European Union.’

Grapes sourced from countries outside the EU but transformed into alcoholic beverages inside the EU cannot be called wine. ‘In the end, we decided to write “Winery of Persia” on the label, instead of “Persian wine”, and “alcoholic beverage made from grapes” instead of “wine”.’

The name Drood means ‘cheers’ in the Persian language, and the winery in Sweden is located in a former paper mill. ‘The owners wanted to taste our wine first, and luckily they liked it,’ Soltani says, smiling.

They aren’t the only ones. Since the first vintage in 2021, Drood has found its way onto wine lists at 30 restaurants in Sweden, primarily non-Persian, and into new export markets including the US and UK.

Soltani makes 20,000 bottles and has the capacity to make five times that. The wines are rustic, tasty and have character – and they are anything but mainstream. ‘To me, this project is a peaceful and silent resistance to what is happening in my country, showing that we will not let go of our traditions or freedom that easily,’ Soltani says.

See notes and scores for two wines which are setting new rules

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With most of the grapes safely in the wineries by the first week of April, Argentina brought an end to its 2023 harvest almost a month earlier than usual. The reasons for the haste date back to the early mornings of 31 October and 1 November, 2022, when frosts struck to determine the course of this unusual year.

Alejandro Vigil, the president of Wines of Argentina, director of production, vineyards and wineries at Catena Zapata and creator of El Enemigo Wines, sums things up. ‘We had an early harvest with low yields but with unprecedented balance between the malic acidity, pH and ripeness. We’re very optimistic about the wines we’ll be making this year.’

Interpreting the harvest

Following the polar cold front, which hit almost every wine-producing region in the country, expectations were low. Some were even gloomily predicting historic losses. Fortunately, however, many producers saw their vines recover in time with estimates of the eventual drop in yields falling between 25 and 30%. Meanwhile the grapes that were harvested were of excellent health and quality.

This was due to the fact that after the frosts, the spring was warm and dry as Argentina suffered from a historic drought that continued into the hottest summer in decades. Because of the heat and the lesser loads of fruit, the vines ripened more quickly.

Although by February temperatures were dropping – there was even an unprecedently early frost – the pace of ripening continued steadily, especially among the reds. In Mendoza and Patagonia, the grapes were generally harvested about three weeks earlier than normal.

‘This harvest required great precision when it came to deciding on the right moment,’ says Germán Di Césare, head winemaker at Trivento. ‘By the middle of February, we saw that everything was happening much earlier than usual, the grapes were small and not very fleshy but showed remarkable aromatic development and rising Brix degrees as well as pronounced malic concentration. By the end of February we had decided to bring the harvest forward.’

Mendoza

In the regions of Mendoza that concentrate more on quality than quantity such as the Uco Valley and Luján de Cuyo, the expectations for premium wines remain unaffected, especially among the reds.

Meanwhile the whites, among which yields were lower, are already showing some promising Chardonnays, Semillons and Sauvignon Blancs. Following some rain and milder temperatures towards the end of February, the Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc were able to settle down. As a result, many are now predicting reds with excellent ageing potential.

‘Overall, the hot summer was a major factor in forcing us to rethink our calculations about ripeness,’ says Gustavo Rearte, head winemaker at Achaval Ferrer. ‘Ripening happened much earlier than usual but remarkable natural freshness was maintained. The wines were fermented at low pHs, meaning excellent ageing potential and life expectancy we can’t wait to see come to fruition.’

Patagonia

Of all the regions, Patagonia was hit hardest by the frosts of 2022. Here, average losses reached as high as 50% in Río Negro and Neuquén, where 90% of Patagonia’s vineyards are located.

‘The autumn and winter of 2022 were cool and dry while the spring had higher than average temperatures that brought budding forward,’ says winemaker Marcelo Miras of Bodega Miras. ‘Then came the frosts, which were especially lengthy in our area and affected as much as 70% of output in some vineyards. The rest of the growing period was warm and dry.’

Lower fruit yields and higher temperatures speeded up ripening by 15 days, resulting in aromatic whites – Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay – with tart acidity. The reds – mainly Malbec and Cabernet Franc – had good aromas, intense colour, appreciable concentration and refreshing acidity.

Pinot Noir, the variety for which Patagonia is most famous, suffered more due to the fragility of the grape, but those that made it through to the harvest promise to be rich and intense.

San Juan

In San Juan – a province that accounts for 20% of Argentina’s output – the drop in yields was about 15%. Germán Buk, the oenologist at Finca La Moras, reports: ‘We had a warm harvest with more degree days than 2022 and a similar amount of rainfall. The frosts didn’t hit us as hard as other provinces, although we did get some hail.’

In general, the San Juan valleys saw the harvest brought forward by about 10 days due to accelerated sugar development with good levels of acidity and pH. In the Pedernal Valley, a cool, high-altitude region, the natural acidity and pH were notable, greater than last year, resulting in an enticingly fruity profile for the reds. The whites are showing good acidity and bold aromas.

High-altitude vineyards

Meanwhile, in the northwest, which boasts the highest vineyards in Argentina, the harvest was cooler than usual. But no significant drops in yield were reported in Cafayate, the hub of the extreme altitude winemaking scene.

‘Lower temperatures in spring led to some minor damage from frosts, from which the vines recovered during the growing cycle, so we had a normal year,’ says Jorge Noguera, winemaker at Bodega Amalaya in Cafayate. ‘The cool climate held back the harvest for about 15 days so we only started with the Riesling at the end of January, the Torrontés and Malbec at the end of February and had finished by April.’

The result was lower than usual potential alcohol levels, meaning subtler, fresher than average wines from the high altitude, sun-kissed terroir.

However, in the highest valleys of the northwest, where vineyards in Salta and Jujuy are generally planted above 1,980m above sea level, the frosts did affect yields. This was especially true in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, Colomé and Payogasta.

Overall, the drop in yields during the 2023 harvest was compensated for by healthy fruit with good concentration and acidity, a combination that is producing excellent quality in the initial musts. And so, the wineries of the largest wine producer in South America are breathing a sigh of relief, and looking forward to next year with renewed optimism.

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Pablo Rivero is the sommelier and owner behind award-winning Parrilla Don Julio steakhouse in Buenos Aires. He was named Latin America’s Best Sommelier 2022 in the inaugural prize by the World’s 50 Best in November 2022.

‘Like many Argentines, I have family in Mendoza, so wine was always on the table, at lunchtime and over dinner, at home.’

‘When I started working at Parrilla Don Julio as a 20-year-old, I fell in love with the ageing and cellaring of wines, processes that would transform them into something better: I love playing with the effects of time. And, as soon as sommellerie became a career option, I was part of the first class to study at the Escuela Argentina de Vinos in 2002.’

‘My earliest drinking memory is my grandfather giving me a glass of wine and soda to try, and watching him squirt the fizzy water into the glass. I’d watch those hypnotic and tempting bubbles and always remember that beautiful intense red colour.’ 

‘It’s an incredibly joyful moment for Argentine wine to have one of its own named the first Latin America’s Best Sommelier 2022 by the World’s 50 Best. While I’m the face of a large team, there are eight sommeliers as well as numerous wait staff without whom there would be little success. It’s hugely satisfying because it validates all the important work we do in the salon and it also serves as recognition of Argentine wine, which is precisely what our work is based upon and it’s wonderful to know that our efforts are worthy of this prize.’

‘Three memorable vintages are the 1959 Trapiche Broquel from Agrelo in Luján de Cuyo, a red made in a gigantic 70,000-litre oak foudre. It’s highly complex, with oxidative ageing and veil of flor; it still has plenty of life in it.’ 

‘Then there’s the Bodega Tupungato Gruta Azul 1969; it was the first wine to name the Tupungato district on a label, although the winery doesn’t exist any more.’

‘As for contemporary vintages, I’m really thrilled by Per Se La Craie 2019 by Edgardo del Pópolo and David Bonomi, which comes from Gualtallary. This Uco Valley region is the one that excites me the most right now, especially the wines coming out of El Monasterio and La Cautiva.’

‘At home I enjoy opening Criollas, Moscatels and Patagonian Pinot Noir, as well as Pinot Noir from other cool climates. I tend to go for lighter, more simple reds at home with my family and friends.’

‘Recommending wines to guests at Don Julio is the most entertaining part of my work. We pay attention to what a guest is after, through their words and gestures, and combine that with what they are going to order. We decipher what they want, consider the possibilities we have in the cellar, and return to the guests with their desire in a bottle or glass. That game, the back and forth, the decoding, the vertigo that each situation brings and whether we can satisfy it, is the most beautiful aspect of our profession, and I love it.’ 

‘One pairing I always enjoy is skin-contact Torrontés with a really medium-rare bife de cuadril (rump steak). It’s a lean and tasty cut, and is simply perfect with the grip this particular style has. I have a lot of fun with it.’

‘To ensure that our hospitality at Don Julio is always fantastic, I stick to three rules. The key being love for what we do; the second, collaborating with the guests who come to dine under our roof; and the third is the continual attention we accord every detail.’

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Seemingly immune to passing trends, Cabernet Sauvignon remains the king of red grapes. In fact, while Syrah, Pinot Noir and Malbec have been busy making headlines, Cabernet Sauvignon has become the most commonly planted red variety in the world, with about 341,000ha under vine globally (OIV 2017).

When it comes to single varietals and red blends based on Cabernet Sauvignon, many wine lovers instinctively think of Bordeaux and Napa Valley – not least for the exorbitant prices some of their wines can command.

However, South America is now also producing examples that are beginning to turn collectors’ heads.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the wines setting the standard for South American Cabernet Sauvignon

Drawing on a long history of producing Cabernet Sauvignon blends, Argentina and Chile have become rising powers in the fine wine field.

Cabernet Sauvignon in Chile

Winemaking in Chile owes a lot to Cabernet Sauvignon. In the 1980s, it established itself as the premium red, opening the doors to major global markets and becoming the most popular vine for planting in Chile. Today, its 41,000ha account for one third of the country’s vineyards.

Over the past three decades, Chile has been best known for offering excellent value for money, but it is now earning genuine admiration for some of its premium Cabernets and Bordeaux blends.

‘Cabernet Sauvignon has been our speciality for the past 120 years, and now we’re finally able to show it,’ says Aurelio Montes, a pioneer of high-end winemaking in Chile.

The new Cabernet Sauvignon scene in Chile follows a revolution in how terroirs are being identified, resulting in parcels being selected by wineries specifically for premium wines. This is coupled with better vineyard management and more precise, terroir-driven oenology.

All things considered, it’s probably about time to forget what you thought you knew about Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon.

A new chapter

There’s no doubt that Maipo will always be the leading region when it comes to Cabernet in Chile, but Maipo is a big place and, to produce the best, winemakers have to be specific. ‘Until a few years ago, people would just say Maipo, but today we need to be more precise about our vineyards. Maipo isn’t all the same,’ says Marcelo Papa, winemaker at Concha y Toro. ‘For example, in Puente Alto, where our Don Melchor vineyard is, you also find a number of other very important vineyards. It’s our Pauillac. The elegance of the vines there is a class apart from other areas.’

Top-class Cabernet Sauvignons here are generally concentrated in Alto Maipo, in the Andean foothills, where the vineyards begin to climb the slopes. Here, Pirque and Peñalolen are the sub-regions that set the tone. The high altitude and mild climate make for a refined texture among reds, which tend to be tense and linear. ‘Alto Maipo is a place where one can make great wines of elegance and drinkability that used to take years in the bottle to achieve,’ says Rafael Urrejola, who produces Altazor, Undurraga’s star wine, with grapes from Alto Maipo.

Further south, Apalta and Marchigüe have recently burst onto the high-end Cabernet Sauvignon scene, but with more modern profiles. Apalta is a corner of Colchagua where Cabernet Sauvignon vines planted at the foot of the mountains are achieving top results. ‘Cabernet from Apalta has improved a lot in recent years. We’re no longer looking for the potency we sought before; we’re now more interested in the clarity of fruit flavours you can get in the region,’ explains Andrea León, who has just launched a Cabernet Sauvignon for Lapostolle sourced from 100-year-old vines at the Clos Apalta vineyard.

In Marchigüe, the key is the vineyards’ proximity to the Pacific Ocean, where cooler climates, combined with granite soils, give life to Cabernet Sauvignons with sparky red fruit flavours and striking minerality. Prime examples include wines made by Calcu or Dagaz.

Finally, Maule is writing its own new chapter in the history of Chilean Cabernet, especially in Cauquenes, where Odfjell produces a vibrant, refined example ideal for those looking for something off the beaten path.

Argentina: iconic wines

‘Until about 25 years ago, all of Argentina’s iconic wines were Cabernet Sauvignons or Bordeaux blends. We grew up with the flavour of Cabernet held up as what a great wine should be,’ says Andrés Vignoni at Viña Cobos, where special effort has been put into the variety.

In Argentina, about 14,500ha are under vine with the grape (Wines of Argentina), making it the country’s third most cultivated red variety. Many Argentinian oenologists believe that a great wine ought to begin with Cabernet Sauvignon. The goal is to produce single-varietal wines and Bordeaux blends that show the grape at its best.

Distinctive qualities

Cabernet Sauvignon has always developed unique characteristics in Argentina. Vineyards where the variety is grown are planted at anything between 400m and 2,590m above sea level, in a dry, sunny, continental climate. These conditions ensure that the grape can ripen without the greenish pyrazines and fresh herbal notes that can be found in other regions. Argentinian Cabernet Sauvignons thus tend to be overflowing with fruity aromas, have good minerality (thanks to the alluvial soils) and develop a fleshy structure that facilitates longevity.

‘The experience we’ve garnered exploring new regions for Malbec has lent us greater understanding of Cabernet as well, especially its sensitivity,’ says Alejandro Vigil at Catena Zapata. ‘We’ve been able to greatly modify how we manage the vineyards and harvest times to take full advantage of the identity brought by each region.’ The result of these changes can be appreciated in the rising quality of Cabernets from traditional regions, such as Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley in Mendoza and the Calchaquí Valleys in Salta.

Argentina produces three distinct styles of Cabernet Sauvignon that should be of great interest to fans of the Médoc and Napa Valley. Classic profiles can be found in Agrelo and Perdriel in Luján de Cuyo, where the rocky, deep clay soils give rise to silky, chewy wines with a juicy freshness. Excellent examples are produced by Catena Zapata, Viña Cobos, Pulenta Estate and Terrazas de los Andes.

The Uco Valley offers interesting twists on the formula, depending on the composition and altitude of the soils. Tupungato, where vineyards are higher, provides exponents with good body, fruit and herbal depth. Los Arboles, a cool area, produces voluminous textures with sharp acidity, mineral notes and generous helpings of berries.

Finally, La Consulta, to the south of the Uco Valley, has always stood out for its old vines planted in dried rocky river beds. In Cabernet Sauvignons from here, the grape’s characteristic fruitiness is marshalled with flinty vigour.

Further north, the Calchaquí Valleys have long been well known for their Cabernet Sauvignons. Produced from extreme high-altitude vineyards, between 1,650m and 2,590m, the variety takes on a fresh, herbal profile that, when well handled, delivers distinctive wines of exquisite power.

Iglesias’ picks: the wines setting the standard for South American Cabernet Sauvignon

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Patagonia: The pioneers

Fine wines to know from Chile and Argentina

In February 2020, the founder of Bodega Tapiz in Argentina’s Uco Valley, Patricia Ortiz, announced that her Patagonian winery Wapisa would be the first in the country to experiment with underwater ageing.

The Rio Negro-based Wapisa, which is part of Fincas Patagonias, decided to place crates of wines at varying depths in the Atlantic Ocean as part of their new ‘coastal terroir’ inititive.

Aided by a biologist and diver, the team submerged 1,500 magnums of their 2017 Malbec-blend in crates at depths between six and 15 metres, 25km away from their vineyards, off the shore of Las Grutas.

The wines remained in place for nine months before being tasted and inspected alongside bottles that had been cellared on land.

‘We seek elegance in our wines’ Ortiz said. ‘We were curious to explore if underwater ageing could actually allow us to have young wines with the benefit of maturity.

‘We tasted the underwater-aged wine and the cellar-aged counterparts blind, the difference was stunning: the former was rounder, more elegant and with fresher fruit,’ she said.

A second lot of bottles will be submerged at the end of this month, February 2021, in newly improved cages that will allow sea water to circulate through the bottles. The bottles will then be marketed together for consumers to taste themselves.

Beach-side winery

Another hands-on project that started in 2018 further south in Chubut has also seen ‘marvelous results’ from oceanic ageing.

The project, that was started by Argentine winemaker Matías Michelini, the owners of eco-resort Bahia Bustamante Lodge and world-renowned bartender Tato Giovannoni, saw just under one hectare of Semillon and Pinot Noir planted on the beach, just three metres away from the ocean.

Last year, 2020, saw their first micro-vinification having placed grapes in two 100 litre eggs that they buried in the sand.

‘The result was marvelous’, said Michelini. ‘The wines have a clear sea character of salt, iodine and algae with very good acidity which nicely balances the ripe fruit courtesy of the sunny and dry climate.’

For the 2021 vintage they will use 1,000 litre cement eggs buried near the water and by 2022 they will move a step further and submerge them halfway in the ocean

Growing sector

Underwater wine ageing is a technique being explored by an increasing number of producers.

The first conference on underwater wine was held in 2019, addressing the process and challenges of submerging wine in the sea – including concerns about ‘copycat wineries’ giving this growing sector a bad name.

In March 2020, a winery on the Italian island of Elba revived an ancient method of submerging grapes in the sea, once used to make wine fit for Julias Caesar.

Southern latitude, 17 hours of daylight and grape-and-icicle-draped vineyards in summer paint a vivid picture of extremity in Trevelin, the newest addition to Argentina’s GI (Geographical Indication) collection. 

Trevelin is located between 43°07”S and 43°18”S in Futaleufú department in the northwest of Chubut Province, Patagonia. Its approval, granted on 6 August, presents a welcome boost for this nascent wine region.

Currently just 12ha are dedicated to vineyard cultivation, although there’s an additional – and vast – 35,988ha to play around with. (For comparison, San Pablo, the 2019-designated Mendoza GI, covers 4,300 ha.) 

While Trevelin’s northern frontier is formed naturally by the Futaleufú River and Los Alerces National Park, Andean mountains at a 600m marker to the south shape a fertile valley – where Welsh migrants used to raise cattle in the 19th century. The Chilean border is just 12km away from pioneering local winery Casa Yagüe, with the Pacific Ocean lying 88km beyond that.

Trevelin climate and grapes

Besides its unique southern location and 300-400m elevation, Trevelin has summers with 17 hours of daylight. During summer the diurnal temperature variation ranges from over 30°C in the day to 0°C at night. 

Climate wise, marked seasonal cycles include frost, rain (600-1,000mm on average annually, depending where you are in the valley) and regular snowfall between April and August.

Harvest takes place in April and May, and powerful drip irrigation is used to combat frost, creating an unusual icy vista even in summer.

Cool-climate-loving white grapes dominate, such as Chardonnay, Semillon, Gewüztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as Marsanne.

Trevelin whites stand out for their intense natural acidity and relatively low alcohol, between 11% abv and 12% abv. Vintners are also turning their hand to Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc. 

While agriculture has always been part of the landscape, Trevelin Valley recently adopted its winemaking identity in 2012 and today is home to three bodegas. 

Marcelo Yagüe and Patricia Ferrari of Bodega Casa Yagüe Vinos Australes brought in an agronomist, then planted 4ha in 2014, giving Trevelin its first successful vintage three years later. The couple spearheaded the region’s GI campaign. 

Viñas del Nant y Fall and Contra Corriente complete the Trevelin trio, backed up by around seven grape producers.

In the past decade, winemakers in Chile and Argentina have moved beyond what was seen as the final frontier for South American viticulture and into the cool climates and wild terrains of Patagonia. Growing confidence and expertise; a quest for lower temperatures and greater water availability in the face of climate change; and a thirst for adventure – all of these factors are leading the current generation of winemakers further south.

The sparsely populated wilderness of Patagonia, at the tail end of the continent, has enraptured voyagers for centuries. When the famed 16th-century explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed around these southern archipelagoes, he described it as the land of giants – the land of the patagón.Patagonia is indeed nothing short of gigantic: 1 million km2 of land surrounded by three oceans. Awe-inspiring landscapes range from hanging glaciers, mountain peaks and dense forests to snow-capped volcanoes, wind-whipped deserts and crystal-clear lakes.In Argentina, Patagonia begins at the Huincul Fault or the Neuquén Basin, where the Río Negro runs eastwards, providing fertile lands that have been planted with vines for over a century. No one, however, dared plant further south, where temperatures dropped, winds picked up and conditions grew harsher. The feasible viticultural limit was seen as 39°S.

Virgin terrain

What Patagonia did offer, though, was excellent fly-fishing. And it was on one such fishing trip that Mendoza vine-grower Bernardo Weinert pondered how the conditions looked remarkably similar to those of another favourite fishing spot of his: Oregon in the US – where he’d tasted decent local wine.

So in 1991, Weinert took his winemaker’s son, Roberto de la Mota, on the 1,500km drive south from Mendoza, with a truck filled with 800 vines to plant in this virgin terrain. The local agriculture institute laughed the pair out of the office, and instead they went door to door, asking local residents to plant vines in their gardens.

‘My mission was to trial the vines in different sites, and then buy the grapes from the owners to make wine,’ says Weinert. Within three years the vines had their first fruit and it was enough to convince him to buy land and plant 27ha in El Hoyo, at 42°S.

He planted cool-climate varieties he’d known in Oregon – Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewürztraminer – and also Merlot, ‘because I love nothing more than Merlot!’

That first vintage of Merlot is remarkably good today, resplendent with evolved berry and truffle aromas but retaining acidity and tension more than a decade later. The greatest fruit of that first adventure, though, is the intellectual seed sown, and the dissemination of vines to families in Chubut who continue making wine with these varieties today.

Scroll down for Barnes’ top Patagonia picks

Unique profile

Small, passion-driven wine projects are leading the expansion of Chubut’s 100ha wine region. Most estates are tucked into the Andean foothills, where valleys offer some respite from the wind.

‘Frost is a really big challenge, but we are somewhat protected from the wind here,’ says Sofia Elena, winemaker at Contra Corriente, another vineyard that was started by keen anglers who also have a fishing lodge. ‘This extreme limit of cool-climate viticulture is what gives the wines here a unique profile – I’d never tried anything like it in Argentina before, which is why I came here to make wine,’ she adds.

This intellectual stimulation and distinctive wine profile is attracting many Argentinian winemakers to the region and its fresh and filigree wines, which are a world away from plush Mendozan Malbec. But Patagonia’s potential is only beginning to be explored, as several producers move beyond the mountain corridor and towards the coast.

Risk-taking winemaker Matías Michelini has planted in Chubut’s seaweed-farming district in Bahía Bustamante, at a latitude of 45.1°S, just metres from the sea. It is the latest in a growing number of coastal plantations in Argentina, which include the sizeable projects of Tapiz (45ha in Viedma, 40.8°S) and Trapiche (30ha in Chapadmalal, 38.1°S).

The biggest investment down here, however, is in the Patagonian Steppes, where Argentinian billionaire and wine magnate Alejandro Bulgheroni has planted the world’s southernmost commercial vineyard, at 45.33°S. On purchasing a cherry farm in Sarmiento, near Lago Musters, Bulgheroni asked his dream team of consultants (soil expert Pedro Parra and flying winemaker Alberto Antonini) about the feasibility of making wine there. In 2011 they concurred and planted a 50ha vineyard, which is now coming to fruition with the first commercial release of Otronia 2017.

Site selection is enormously important in such an extreme environment. Although winemakers are rejoicing at the better water supplies in the south, humidity is a new challenge for those used to arid wine regions. But it is frost and the southern winds (up to 100km per hour!) that are fatal perils of Patagonian viticulture. But this is a feat that producers are increasingly willing to face, and not only in Argentina.

The Austral region

Vines traversed their way through most of Chile during four centuries of immigration, but commercial wine production stopped at Bío Bío. Not only was the cooler, wetter climate seen as inhospitable for vines, but southern Chile (known locally as the Austral region, rather than Patagonia) was also a stronghold of the native Mapuche population, who weren’t amenable to outsiders or their business endeavours. Despite Chile’s extensive viticultural spread elsewhere, anywhere below the Bío Bío River was effectively off the grid.

In the early 1990s, at the same time as other winemakers began exploring the coastline of Casablanca for cooler climates, one producer looked south. ‘Everyone said I was out of my mind, but I’d tasted New Zealand’s wines and believed it would be possible in southern Chile too,’ explains Aquitania winemaker Felipe de Solminihac, who planted 5ha of Chardonnay in Malleco in 1993.

Although Malleco is at a similar latitude to Río Negro in Argentina, it receives more than 1,000mm of rain annually compared to Río Negro’s 200mm. It was the first vineyard in Chile to be planted within Zone I of the Winkler Index, comparable to Champagne. ‘I knew it had great potential for sparkling wine,’ says de Solminihac, ‘but the slow maturation was great for developing complex aromas and retaining acidity in still wines too.’

The wines quickly started to speak for themselves, and by 2002 a denomination of origin was created for the unique wines of Malleco – at the time Chile’s smallest DO, of just 5ha. Today, there are more than 120ha and 24 producers seeking Malleco’s unique profile of wines.

‘There are few wines in the world from young volcanic soils such as this, and we were excited to try it,’ explains Clos des Fous winemaker François Massoc. ‘The scarcity of water and the warmer temperatures are an undeniable fact of climate change, and here in the south we still get this opportunity for cooler-climate expressions of varieties such as Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.’

It’s these three varieties (as still wines and traditional-method sparklings) that are defining Austral Chile. And this cooler-climate profile has attracted many other terroir hunters to Malleco, taking vineyards to even more extreme locations, such as the De Martino brothers’ vineyard on the slopes of the Villarrica volcano, at 700m altitude.

Osorno and beyond

Although the action is concentrated in Malleco, the new frontier of Chilean wine is much further south – 350km away in Osorno.

Since 2006, a handful of small producers, including Cruchon and Ribera Pellín, have put the Bueno Valley in central Osorno on the map with, respectively, their fresh Pinot Noirs and characterful sparkling wines.

Another emerging star in Osorno is Trapi, with 8ha in the coastal hills. ‘We started looking for a vineyard site in 2005,’ says agronomist Luis Moller. ‘It took years to find the right northern exposure to get all the extra sunlight, and even then we lost the first three years of production to frost!’

Daytime temperatures reach 30°C but evenings can drop to -5°C, even in summer. But with ample water supply: Trapi now uses sprinkler systems to protect its vines from frost. It’s also expanding its vineyard to meet demand from another producer making Osorno wines – Miguel Torres.

‘We’re very concerned about climate change,’ explains Torres winemaker Eduardo Jordan. ‘Chile’s Central Valleys have seen a significant impact since 2007, with half as much rain and maximum temperatures reaching 2°C higher. This is why we are investing in the south.’ Torres has purchased a further 5,700ha even further south, in which it has already planted experimental vineyards – a likely precursor of the general migration of big companies in this direction.

The most prolific producer in Osorno for now, though, is Casa Silva – one of the original Osorno pioneers, which planted in Lago Ranco in 2007. Now with 14ha, the vineyard’s lakeside position (on sunny slopes just 600m from the 410km2 Ranco Lake) puts it in a narrow frost-free zone.

‘The biggest challenge for us has been logistics rather than climate,’ says agronomist René Vásquez. ‘Training a viticultural team in a cattle-breeding region isn’t easy!’ Despite the associated high costs, it’s a rewarding challenge, says commercial director Arnaud Frennet: ‘Osorno is a challenge, from viticulture and winemaking to the commercial standpoint, but these wines fill us with adrenaline.’

Exhilarating

Adrenaline-seeking is perhaps what led avid sailor Aurelio Montes to plant a vineyard on the island of Chiloé (at 42.6°S) last year, and Undurraga to plant on the side of General Carrera Lake in 2008, at 45.33°S. But Patagonia is still a land for the brave, as Undurraga winemaker Rafael Urrejola can attest after the winery had to abandon its project in 2016. ‘Even though the climatic data made sense, the vines couldn’t survive the extreme climate and winds,’ he explains.

Urrejola did, however, manage to get one vintage from his Patagonian vines – in 2012. That taste of the forbidden fruit, which he describes as ‘unlike any Pinot I ever imagined in Chile’, has made him adamant that he will return. ‘Despite all the challenges, I’ll make wine there again in the future,’ he asserts. ‘The feeling of making wine in the remoteness of Patagonia is exhilarating.’

These Patagonian wine adventures are also exhilarating for consumers. In a very short space of time, and despite being from very young vines, the wines of both Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia are becoming some of the most distinctive on the continent. They have brought an exciting new dimension to South American wine: one with freshness, delicacy and acidity to the fore.

In my opinion, it is not only the climate and grape varieties that give these wines a common style stamp, but also the evolving tastes, expertise and adventurous nature of this new wave of producers. These wines are certainly worthy of their own cross-nation denomination – perhaps of Austral Sparkling or Patagonian Pinot. The artisanal nature of the winemaking, and the effort required from the challenging terroir, put Patagonian wines in a league of their own.

Amanda Barnes is a wine and travel writer who has been based in South America since 2009.

Patagonia wines: Top bottles to try

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From the air, the Río Negro Valley looks like a narrow, misshapen strip of intense green, a fierce contrast to the thousands of square kilometres of desert that surround it. An oasis in the middle of the arid Argentinian Patagonia, 1,200km south of Buenos Aires.

Scroll down for Patricio Tapia’s top 10 wines from Patagonia, old and new

Once you reach General Roca, the most important city in the area, the contrast between desert and fertile valley becomes even more evident. The green strip hides large pear and apple farms, extensive vineyards and long rows of tall poplars, planted there to partially stop the constant wind which blows throughout the year, especially in spring.On both sides, flanking the valley, rises the barda, a wall of sand and stones that marks the beginning of the desert. Río Negro, that narrow, green strip, is nothing more than the ancient bed of what once was a mighty river on its way to the Pacific Ocean. The water that still flows underground is what allows the area to be historically one of the most important orchards in Argentina.It was here, in 1998, that the 26-year old winemaker Hans Vinding-Diers arrived. Raised in Bordeaux (his family owned Château Rahoul and Château Landiras in Graves), Vinding-Diers had been hired by an English company that had a joint venture with Humberto Canale, one of the region’s most traditional wineries. ‘When I was told I had to go to Argentina, I assumed it would be Mendoza. In 1998 nobody had any idea that people produced wine in Patagonia.’But, as in Mendoza, viticulture in Río Negro is an intrinsic part of the agricultural tradition. And that is reflected in the great legacy of old vineyards scattered among the orchards. That was one of the things that struck the young Vinding-Diers the most: ‘The place seemed incredible – especially because of the number of old, mass-selected, pre-phylloxera vineyards. It was a treasure!’

In addition to the old vines, the gravel soils of the Río Negro river bed reminded him of Bordeaux. And then there was the weather, with a permanent wind that ensures the vineyard remains healthy. ‘That still seems a luxury to me,’ he says.

With such ‘treasures’ and ‘luxuries’ to hand, it didn’t take long for Vinding-Diers to start planning a personal project. Two years later, he found a plot planted in 1932 in the Mainqué area, in the heart of the valley. It was just 1.5ha of a larger vineyard that had been totally abandoned. ‘But you know what? I tried those grapes and they stirred something deep in me. It’s hard to explain, but everything came together in my mind and I knew there was something special there.’

The birth of Noemía

The initial production of these Malbec grapes justified Vinding-Diers’ inkling. Just 1,300 bottles were made from them, but the wine excited the young oenologist so much that he invited his friend, Countess Noemi Marone Cinzano (former owner of Tuscany’s Tenuta di Argiano in Montalcino) to have a look. Like Vinding-Diers, she was also seduced by the landscape and the wine, so decided to invest in the project. Bodega Noemía was born in 2001.

This first vintage of Noemía, and those that followed it, attracted the attention of critics not only because the wines were very good, but also because they came from a virtually unknown wine region. The other two Malbecs that complete the porfolio – J Alberto, from a vineyard planted in 1955s, and A Lisa, the entry-level red made with bought-in fruit and younger vines owned by the winery – gave even more solidity to this project. ‘When I’m asked what the differences are between the Malbec of Río Negro and that of, for example, the Uco Valley in Mendoza, I always say that Uco fruit seems more austere, more black, with a menthol note in the middle. In Río Negro, it’s more fruity, floral and delicate in character, less tannic.’

There has been a long tradition of wine production in Río Negro, and yet the wines never managed to cross the Patagonian border, let alone that of Argentina due to the success of Mendoza. ‘Those were the times of volume not quality. A lot of wine was consumed, but no one really cared about improving them,’ says Oscar Ferrari, an engineer who helped Vinding-Diers find the vineyards for Noemía, and today is the winery manager.

That would begin to change with the first vintages of Bodega Noemía. Marcelo Miras, who until 2002 was Humberto Canale’s winemaker, said it was hard to quantify the influence Vinding-Diers had among other winemakers in the region. ‘What Hans did was to recognise the value of Río Negro’s old vineyards and then apply his own standards and experience as a winemaker. He had always a clear objective: to make great wines here. Not many others were thinking like that.’

The Chacra experiment

Vinding-Diers’ influence didn’t stop with Malbec at Noemía, but extended to Pinot Noir too, this time enthusing a young Italian from Tuscany. In 2001, Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, grandson of Mario Incisa, creator of Sassicaia, was at a dinner in New York with Countess Marone Cinzano and Vinding-Diers. There he blind tasted a Pinot Noir and, being a lover of Burgundy, was immediately fascinated. ‘The wine seemed to show the varietal characters of the grape, but had something more that at that time I interpreted as sense of place,’ he recalls. ‘The wine wasn’t particularly good, but it did have a lot of character.’

His enthusiasm was such that, some months later, he landed in Patagonia. But the landscape was not what he expected. ‘It wasn’t a disappointment as such, rather that I could not connect the desert and flat landscape with what I had tasted in that wine. In Burgundy or Barolo, you can understand the influence of climate, topography and soil in the wine you drink. But here I could not make that link.’

But since he was there, he thought he may as well look around. And then he found a property in Mainqué with a vineyard planted in 1932. ‘It was there that I began to marvel at the vines: knarled, twisted plants, like you’d see in a Tim Burton movie. I talked to the owner and he agreed to sell me some grapes to experiment with,’ he says.

With Vinding-Diers as a consultant, he took up a space in the Noemía winery and in 2003 and 2004 the pair made their first wines under the Bodega Chacra label. ‘The result was somewhat rustic, but we felt that there were the foundations that just needed to be deepened.’ With the help of partners, Incisa della Rochetta managed to buy the property and slowly began to oxygenate the soil, work the land, and restore balance in the vines. ‘As a result, this semi-abandoned vineyard today is an explosion of flora and fauna – armadillos, hawks, foxes, herbs of all species. What we aim for with our wines is to capture the energy that we have achieved in the vineyard,’

Ancient vine heritage

Suddenly, in the eyes of Incisa della Rochetta, the landscape of Río Negro began to change; he was starting to sense that connection he was seeking in the wine. His Pinot soon drew critical attention and people began to talk about the variety’s potential in Patagonia. Everything started to fall into place in the 2010 vintage. ‘It was a very tricky harvest,’ he said. ‘Due to the hail, we had to pick two weeks earlier than usual. The wine had 11% potential alcohol, but there was nothing green about it. Everything was fruit and freshness.’

The 2010 vintage taught Incisa della Rochetta that the time of ripeness in grapes coming from almost 100-year-old, ungrafted, pre-phylloxera vines was different. ‘I realised that it is possible to have complexity and sense of place with grapes picked earlier. Today we make a refreshing yet layered wine in a desert, thanks to one of the world’s most intense luminosities. It was then for me that everything made sense,’ he says.

Bodega Chacra makes three Pinot Noirs. The first is Treinta y Dos and comes from this original vineyard. The soils are rich in clay which, according to Incisa della Rochetta, gives a large, voluptuous wine. Cincuenta y Cinco comes from a vineyard planted in 1955 on soils rich in sand, pebbles and chalk that give the wine a more focused and vertical structure. Barda, meanwhile, comes mainly from a vineyard of 22 years and is the least complex, but the most refreshing of the trio.

Except for Humberto Canale, most Río Negro producers used their Pinot Noir grapes (including those from the century-old vines – something almost non-existent elsewhere on the planet) for sparkling wines. Chacra proved not only that it was possible to make still reds with them, but also some of the best Pinot Noirs in the New World.

The Patagonian wine scene today is still young, but it has changed. The success of Noemía and Chacra has prompted other producers to rescue and preserve the invaluable heritage of old vines in their region. They still have a long way to go to reach the heights attained by these two pioneers, but the potential exists. As with so many things, it’s just a question of time.

Neuquén newcomers

While there are still a few old vineyards in Neuquén, this region is defined by its youth. Towards the end of the 1990s, and with the support of the provincial government, a huge planting project began. According to Wines of Argentina, over the past 15 years more than 1,400 hectares of vineyards were created. ‘It was a bid by the government for a different activity to oil and gas, which is the economic driving force of the region,’ says winemaker Marcelo Miras, who was the project’s lead adviser.

Before too long, on the flat lands of San Patricio del Chañar, about 50km northwest of General Roca, wineries such as Schroeder, Secreto Patagónico and Patritti sprung up, as well as two of the best known names of Patagonia in the international market: Bodegas del Fin del Mundo and NQN – the latter now renamed Malma. Miras was the winemaker for these two wineries until 2015. ‘The main challenge, and the reason I was interested was starting something from scratch; designing the vineyard and also the wineries,’ he said. According to Miras, there are no fundamental differences between Río Negro and Neuquén. ‘In both cases it is a continental, semi-desert climate,’ he explains. ‘But a key difference is the inheritance of old vineyards that exists in Río Negro and that, for obvious reasons, does not in Neuquén.’

The other is the landscape. Río Negro, a valley created thanks to the Río Negro river, looks greener and more fertile. Viticulture there co-exists with orchards and the old, tall poplars which calm the heat in summer. Neuquén, by contrast, is planted over the barda (the wall of sand and stones that marks the beginning of the desert), whose influence is much more palpable. ‘All that changes the environment,’ says Miras.

See Patricio Tapia’s top 10 wines from Patagonia, old and new

Patricio Tapia is the DWWA Regional Chair for Argentina

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Chilean winemaker and entrepreneur Aurelio Montes has planted the first vineyard on the Chiloé group of islands in the south of the country.

Montes planted two hectares of vines this month on the small isle of Mechuque, on the eastern side of the Chiloé Archipelago, which lies more than 600 miles south of Santiago.

It is one of the world’s southernmost plantings at a latitude of 42.6° S and a landmark experiment for island viticulture in Chile.

Despite its southerly location, Aurelio Montes – who frequently sails and flies in the region – believes the warm ocean currents on the eastern side of the archipelago will protect it from frost and the extreme temperatures that are common elsewhere at this latitude.

‘I explored the Chiloé Archipelago dozens of times — by air, by sea, and by land, so it gave me a detailed knowledge of its many islands,’ Montes told Decanter.com.

‘Chiloé is not only a place of myth and legend, it has major climatic benefits.’

Montes added that he hired experts from the University of Chile to conduct a temperature and precipitation study in Chiloé and they selected the best site according to its climatic and soil conditions.

‘This is a location naturally protected from the maritime influence and cold Humboldt Current, thanks to its location in a horseshoe-shaped bay,’ said Montes.

The experimental vineyard of two hectares is planted with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Albariño with a mind to make both sparkling and still wine.

If the experiment goes well, the first commercial harvest is expected in 2021 or 2020.

See also: Producers to watch in Chile’s Colchagua region

Published online in May this year for Premium members

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So, which Argentine wines should you look out for, if you like these other styles...?

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Argentinian wine alternatives

Burgundian palates

There is very little in common between Argentine and Burgundian vineyards, however several Argentine labels would surprise most experts in Chablis and Côtes de Nuit. If we think of red wines, the key is in Patagonia, especially in the old vineyards of Rio Negro, where the Pinot is complex and elegant, such as those elaborated by Piero Incisa in Bodega Chacra, Marcus Gran Reserva by Humberto Canale or those by the winemaker Marcelo Miras for Familia Miras.

As for Chardonnay, the Burgundy profile can be found in the whites of the highlands of Tupungato, where the vineyards climb to between 1,450 and 1,600 metres. Here, the cold climate and calcareous soils define a fresh and subtle style, such as Matías Riccitelli Vineyard Selection Chardonnay 2015, Atamisque Chardonnay 2015, Salentein Single Vineyard 2013 or Zuccardi Fósil 2016, in fact, another Geographical Indication in formation, San Pablo as well as Luján de Cuyo offers refined examples such as

Luigi Bosca Finca Los Nobles 2013.

Bordeaux Collectors

Fans of Bordeaux would be astonished with the potential of Argentine red blends. Made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot and other reds, they are a promising investment for the future. Examples include Cheval des Andes, made jointly by Terrazas de los Andes and Cheval Blanc, as well as CARO 2013, the result of a project that Nicolás Catena shares with Baron Eric de Rothschild, Lagarde Primeras Viñas Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 – which presents an Argentine profile for the red king, and Zorzal Piantao 2012.

Intense and modern styles

At the beginning of 1990, Priorat was at the top of fine wines for their muscular reds. Later it was the turn of Australia, and then Napa Valley, adding fruity reds to an almost chewable palate. These are wines with a style that seduces thousands of consumers. In Argentina, these styles are found in warm regions such as Salta, San Juan and certain corners of Mendoza. For example, the vineyards of San Juan are famous for their juicy and fleshy Syrah, such as Finca Las Moras Gran Syrah 2014 or Pyros Barrel Selected Syrah 2014, while in Mendoza, in areas such as Barrancas or Lunlunta, the climate gives life to strong reds, such as Pascual Toso Alta Syrah 2014 and Dedicado Barrancas Vineyard 2015. Now, in the Calchaquí Valleys, with the country’s highest vineyards, one can find juicy reds such as Colomé Altura Máxima Malbec 2013, Yacochuya 2013 or Estancia Los Cardones Tigerstones 2013.

Fragrance in the glass

In the universe of white strains, the aromatic ones are really special. Among them, the most popular are Gewürztraminer and Riesling, for their penetrating floral and fruity tones, something that Torrontés takes care of in Argentina. Unlike its peers, this aromatic white enjoys a dry and sunny climate and its best results are seen in Cafayate, Salta. In addition to floral, citrus and tropical aromas, these wines display a dry and vibrant palate, as is the case of Domingo Molina Torrontés 2016, Laborum Single Vineyard Torrontés 2016 and Terrazas Reserva Torrontés 2016.

So, with such an enticing wine list on offer, what are you waiting for?

This content has been provided by Wines of Argentina

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Patagonia is an exciting work in progress competing with Mendoza to produce the best Argentinian Malbecs. Patricio Tapia highlights the top five Patagonian Malbecs from this lesser-known yet promising region...

• Scroll down to see five great Malbec wines from Patagonia

The two most important wine provinces in Patagonia are Río Negro and Neuquén. The first has a great wine tradition, dating back more than a century, while the second, with most of its vineyards planted in the late 1990s, is one of the youngest in Argentina.

Around the Colorado and Río Negro rivers, and at heights that do not exceed 500m (in Mendoza, they can reach 1,600m), vineyards in Patagonia flourish under the warm sun, but the grapes are cooled almost year-round by the intense winds that descend from the Andes. Despite Patagonia’s latitude at 45° south, it is not necessarily a cold region. The heat is often intense, as demonstrated by the alcohol levels in the wines.

Malbec is the main variety (40% of reds), and the one which produces the best results. The depth and complexity of the Malbecs from old vines in Río Negro is a flagship style for Patagonia, best demonstrated by Noemía whose reds are the stars of that sub-region. The younger vines of Neuquén and La Pampa (especially in cooler vintages like 2014) are made in a simple, approachable style with a strong focus on the fruit.

Editing for Decanter.com by Laura Seal

Five of the best Patagonian Malbec wines

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Patagonia offers a culinary tour de force extending from Neuquen to Tierra del Fuego, 2,500km of unforgettable flavours and wines.

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Patagonian dishes

Every year, millions of visitors from all over the world come to Patagonia to explore its geography and tour its forests, lakes and snow-capped mountains in search of relaxation or adventure. But Patagonia has much more than beautiful postcards to offer. Its cuisine has become a tourist magnet and can often be found in food festivals of international stature, along with a brand new wine route. And now tourists can discover a cuisine that is in full creative ferment.

The best kept secrets are the excellent lamb and rainbow trout, while the cold waters of the sea provide crab, shrimp and black hake. In addition to this are internationally renowned fruits, such as pears and apples from the Alto Valle of Rio Negro, plus forest fruits, cassis, elderberry, blueberries which make delicious sauces, dressings and desserts.

These products and flavours are celebrated at food festivals in the most important cities in the region, events that are attracting more and more international visitors. The most popular of these are Comodoro Invita and Madryn al Plato, both in the province of Chubut, Cocina por los Siete Lagos, in Neuquen, Bariloche a la Carta, in Rio Negro, and Ushuaia a Fuego Lento, the southernmost food festival in the world.

Wine Roads

The provinces of Neuquen and Rio Negro on the north border of Patagonia not only have recognised ski resorts and leisure activities, but also the greatest number of wineries in the region. Its viticultural poles, Alto Valle de Rio Negro and San Patricio del Chañar respectively, have created a wine route that can be covered in two days.

San Patricio del Chañar owes much of its reputation to Bodega del Fin del Mundo which has been in Neuquen for less than two decades. With over 800 hectares of vineyards and an annual production of eight million litres, it is the largest winery in the region, and its modern facilities are an ideal place to start for visitors. They offer various visitor programs including tours of the winery and vineyards, and tastings. As for the wines, the intensive, expressive Malbec and the modern, deep Pinot Noir stand out as international ambassadors of the province.

Only forty minutes separates Neuquén from the Alto Valle del Río Negro, the cornerstone of Patagonian wine making. Humberto Canale settled here and started up the industry a little over a century ago. Today his family keeps his legacy alive in the original bodega, a place that invites you to discover the history of Patagonian wine. In this province, wine is steeped in tradition, and made from old vines of Pinot Noir, Semillon, Merlot and Malbec.

So for a truly unforgettable experience, sit back, relax and enjoy the sunset on the nearby waters of the Rio Negro with a glass of wine. As far as experiences go, they don’t come much more perfect than Patagonia, food, wine and scenery, in vast, dreamy virgin territory.

Written by Alejandro Iglesias, for Wines of Argentina.

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Patagonia produces top quality wine in Argentina. Learn about two Patagonian wineries with different styles, that complement each other: Fin del Mundo and Malma.

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Patagonia is the southernmost region of Argentina. It is one of the country’s best spots for vine growing and has now emerged as a top-quality wine-producing region. Famous for its natural beauty, resources and sheer size, Patagonia is one of the world´s most beautiful natural sanctuaries.

Like other Argentinian regions, Malbec is a star in Patagonia. However, other varietals such as Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc have also found the land makes their ideal terroir here.

Exceptional conditions for healthy and natural viticulture allow sustainable practices, rational water use and healthy vineyards.

One of the characteristics of this region is that, due to being located at 39 degrees south, the winters are intense and summer nights are cool, producing a slow ripening of the grapes and the perfect combination of sugar, acidity and concentrated aromas.

Another distinctive feature of the region is the wind, which helps keep the vines healthy as well as thickening the skin of the grapes.

Patagonia has managed to position itself as one of the Argentina’s high qualtiy wine regions.

In the UK, Hispamerchants is the importer of two Patagonian wineries, Fin del Mundo and Malma, and Solano Pena Lenzi, Hispmerchant’s MD, is very proud of having wines from Patagonia in his portfolio.

‘As an Argentine specialist, wines from Patagonia form an essential part of our portfolio. Patagonia’s cool climate viticulture ensures that wines produced in this exciting region retain a freshness which is evident whatever the variety. Bodega Del Fin Del Mundo and Bodega Malma are two of the most renowned wineries located in the North Patagonian Neuquén region and we have been working together for more than 8 years, growing the presence of their brands in the UK market year by year. Delicate Pinot Noirs, delightful and refreshing traditional method sparkling wines and Malbecs displaying fantastic mineral notes are just a few of the bright stars shining out in the Patagonian galaxy! With a latitude similar to many of New Zealand’s world-famous wine regions, it is no surprise that Sauvignon Blanc also does fabulously well.

The difference in style between the two wineries means they complement each other and both sit very well in our portfolio. Malma, with Roberto de la Mota as consultant oenologist, produces elegant smooth wines, while Fin Del Mundo incorporates the power and structure of the Michel Rolland style into their wines.

Patagonia has for many years had an exotic and enigmatic profile as a region. The time is now ripe to taste the exotica and discover the mystery! Viva La Patagonia!’

In Europe, one of the main wine importers is Christian Philipson, MD of Philipson Wine, who began importing wine from Patagonia in 2004.

‘We have successfully imported Fin Del Mundo wines since 2004 – Back then Postales Pinot Noir made a sensational debut on the Danish market by beating several world famous and much more expensive Burgundy wines in a blind tasting. Fin Del Mundo put Patagonia on the wine map of the world.’.

Fin del Mundo was the main winery behind the development of the whole San Patricio del Chañar Valley, led by its founder, Julio Viola. Julio discovered that the region was ideal for growing vitis vinifera.

The winery soon started producing outstanding wines and exporting them to the rest of the world.

Another remarkable winery is Malma, formerly known as NQN.

Malma translates as pride from the mapuche language, the mother tongue of the indigenous people who formerly inhabited this region. The name conveys the philosophy of all who work there to make world class wines with Patagonian character.

• Bodega Del Fin Del Mundo:

o HispaMerchants is the stockist and agent for UK

o ND John Wine is the stockist for Wales.

o The General Wine Company is the stockist for the South East of England.

• Bodega Malma:

o HispaMerchants is the stockist for UK.

I'm now on my seventh tour of all the Argentine wine regions. This means thousands of miles of long and fascinating tours in commercial and twin-engine planes, buses, 4×4's, and of course, on foot and on horseback.

One sees deserts, deep blue skies, threatening thunderstorms (with hail the size of golf balls), millennial cacti, poplars held upright by the force of the wind, stony, calcareous and sandy soils, colourful mountains, green and brown valleys, snowy peaks, and vast expanses of green vineyards, in high altitude regions, and on the plains and territories of infinite horizons, like in Patagonia.

One sleeps and wakes in century old estancias (residences), village inns, simple and five star hotels, makeshift tents and luxury spas hundreds of miles from civilisation.

On this type of journey, it is inevitable that one tries scores of excellent Malbec’s, mainly in order to understand how the climate and geography influence the behaviour of this red variety, classified as the emblem of the Argentina wine industry.

But one rarely stops to consider Argentine Cabernet Sauvignon. And I must warn you that they cannot be ignored.

Like the Malbec grape, which acquires its own personality depending on latitude and altitude, Argentine Cabernet Sauvignon is equally stunning, with its own traits, depending on whether it is grown at high altitudes or in warmer valleys.

Most significant are those from Salta in the north and Rio Negro, in Patagonia, in the south, where Argentine Cabernet Sauvignon lacks the dry, green notes, like those that are characteristic of its blood brother, Chile, on the other side of the Cordillera.

In Chile, Cabernet Sauvignon, tempered by the cool breezes of the Pacific, has notes of green pepper, menthol and eucalyptus. Whereas, in Argentina, where it grows under the influence of a warm continental climate of high insolation, it shows spiciness and juiciness, with hints of ripe black fruit, and sensations of smoke and dark chocolate. It is deep, aromatic and sensual.

In my recent meetings with growers, winemakers and Argentine critics, it has become clear that the new era of Argentine wines will have Cabernet Sauvignon in its portfolio.

Malbec has certainly been one way to approach the international consumer, thanks to its smoothness and the fact that it is easy to drink, and sure, there are Malbec labels of excellent quality, but Cabernet Sauvignon will always be the queen grape and the mother of the great wines of history.

One could list many Argentine Cabernet Sauvignon examples, but I wouldn’t want to leave anyone out. So instead, I invite you to be daring the next time you see an Argentine Cabernet Sauvignon on a wine list or on the shelf of a supermarket. In any of its styles, from fresh and young to aged and evolved, you will find that you can drink it without it scraping or exhausting your palate.

It is the power of seduction. Very Argentinian.

Written by Hugo Sabogal

In late November a new project of 'oceanic wines' in Argentina was presented. Hold on… Oceanic? Yes: wines grown next to the sea and produced by a winery located as far away from water as Mendoza is from the Atlantic Ocean. And if the data itself is curious, even more so is that this is a new Atlantic winery and it is redefining the map of Argentine terroirs.

The move is relatively recent. Until the 1990s, when the planting of vines was deregulated, no vineyard could be established in Argentina outside of the stipulated provinces, such as Mendoza, San Juan, La Rioja, Catamarca, Salta and in other extremes, Rio Negro. With the change in legislation, however, new ventures were created. Of course, there are many difficulties in creating new wine regions: no expertise, or people with experience, and the need for other varieties – Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Tannat- so new wineries develop their own learning curve which results in them investing double the time.

Some however, already have commercial lines in the market. And the landscape of wine, at least for now, has something new to add to the books, magazines and websites. It’s true: these new regions represent less than 1% of Argentina’s total vineyards, but then again, the other 99% also started from scratch. Coming up, the new Argentine terroirs…

OCEANIC WINES

Buenos Aires: The largest and most populated province of Argentina is also progressing with a new wine business. Located in the Pampa Húmeda (Humid Pampas), a vast and rich green plain born on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

Within its broad geography, two regions stand out. On one side, Sierra de la Ventana, in the south, home to more than 50 hectares at about 100km from the sea and at a height of 500 meters. In this zone the oceanic influence comes in the form of a breeze and thanks to a fertile environment, the landscape resembles European vineyards and countryside. The nearby towns of Tornsquist, Tandil and Médanos, also have vineyards.

On the other side is Chapadmalal, four kilometres from the sea and a few more from Mar del Plata, a seaside resort, par excellence. According to Daniel Pi, Chief Winemaker at Trapiche, “the conditions here are similar to those of New Zealand’s vineyards.” This puts the focus on this Argentine wine group to develop vineyards of Pinot Noir, Riesling and Gewürztraminer plus Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

With high rainfall, more humidity and sandy loam soils with silt, it makes this region the only one in Argentina that can cultivate vines without artificial irrigation. Both areas now have commercial wines on the market like Ventania, from Bodega Saldungaray in Sierra de la Ventana, Terrasabbia, from Bodega AlEste in Médanos and Mar&Pampa from Bodega Trapiche.

Rio Negro Coast: In this province, between the Rio Negro and the Rio Colorado, the winemaking business has been going for more than a hundred years. But in recent years new vineyards have been cultivated on the Atlantic coast of the province. More precisely Viedma, the provincial capital, where Marcelo Miras, one of the leading winemakers of Patagonia, began advising a venture located just six kilometres from the sea, on the right bank of the Rio Negro. What distinguishes this region from other oceans is the aridity of the climate which means the vines must be watered and offers a curious mix between desert and sea. Bodega Océano Patagonia is the only active winery there, for now.

SERRANO WINES

Córdoba: Located in the centre of the country, it is the second largest province in population, with a thriving capital city and a landscape marked by mountains. The mountainous terrain, with good rainfall and offering granitic and metamorphic soils, has two well-defined areas: Calamuchita, which runs through the central massif, and Traslasierra, towards the western plains. With a handful of wineries in development at roughly a 1000m.a.s.l and some 70 cultivated hectares, some notable strains are Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon which have their own niche in the market. Among the producers, Nicolás Jascalevihc in San Javier, Bodega las Cañitas from Calamuchita and Jairala Oller from Ischilín. Of particular expression, their wines are soft and light, different from those of Cuyo.

San Luis. In the demographics of Argentina it is a small province, with some hilly landscapes, crossed by stone cairns built by pre-Columbian cultures. San Luis has only a decade of grape growing history and one unique product: Finca La Larga. It has 33 hectares in production in Santa Rosa de Conlara, an hours drive from the border with Mendoza. At 630 meters above sea level, the area is characterised by moderate temperatures, cool nights and hot days. The strains are Tannat, Syrah and Viognier.

THE NEW PATAGONIA

Chubut: Located in the heart of Andean Patagonia, the Hoyo de Epuyén is an earthly paradise. A wooded area with snowy peaks and glaciers, with about one thousand millimetres of rain per year. A cold but very dry region in summer, which now covers 26 hectares of vines on the hillside with a good gradient that allows them to withstand the cold winter temperatures. Even though the vineyard is only a decade old, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Merlot show the best results. The project is owned by Bernardo Weinert, who also owns the Mendoza winery that bears his name.

But the new Patagonian wine business does not end here because in the town of Sarmiento, in central Chubut, a new project has started cultivating short-cycle varieties such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, defying the geographical limits of our winemaking.

La Pampa: At the extreme north of Patagonia, is the Pampas town of May 25, a barren and inhospitable region where the Loson family have been cultivating 140 hectares of vineyards for just over a decade. A real challenge due to an arid continental climate of cold winters. With the advice of the American Paul Hobbs, the winery produces the main varieties in Argentina.

Written by Alejandro Iglesias

Argentina is a long country. From south to north it stretches about 3,800km, and there are vineyards in at least two thirds of that extension, with two, well marked, extremes.

On one, the sunny vineyards of the quebrada de Humahuaca, which kiss the Tropic of Capricorn. On the other, the sparkling wine plantations in the far southern latitudes, such as the 46th parallel South, Los Antiguos, Santa Cruz province, the heart of the Patagonian steppe.

Of course these two extremes are experimental. To the North in Huacalera, extends a small vineyard of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon, while those in the south are trials with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, barely larger than one hectare.

But beyond the scale, what is important, is that the distance between these two extremes is similar to the distance from the island of Crete in the Mediterranean, to the Champagne region, northeast of Paris. This is unique to Argentina. A condition which also offers a wide range of possible wines. From Salta and Jujuy in the north to Neuquén, Chubut and Rio Negro.

What distinguishes each region and how can we notice it in the wine?

To the north, in las quebradas (the ravines)

In the northern provinces of Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca, the viticulture develops in Andean valleys, in the form of small oases, reaching some 3,600 hectares. There, the key factor is height. Without it, it would be impossible to achieve such expressive wines, since the primary regulator of these arid and rugged terroirs is that the vine grows from around 1500m up to about 3100 m.a.s.l, in extreme cases, such as the vineyard El Alto, of Bodega Colomé, Salta.

The height is not a whim. Theoretically, with every 150 meters of linear ascent, the average temperature drops by one degree centigrade. And this regulatory effect allows the cultivation of grapes at such low latitudes such as the Tropics, with healthy and balanced vineyards. But just as you regulate temperature, height also imposes a harsh and unforgiving sun, unfiltered by the many layers of air that exist, in Patagonia, for example. Therefore, in this region the sun is the other key factor.

Alejandro Pepa is the winemaker at Bodega El Esteco, one of the leading wineries in the Northwest. With its headquarters in Cafayate, the epicentre of wine production in the region, it makes all the stylistic varieties and range possible. He argues that “in the reds, the main differential of the Northwest is in the color concentration and intensity of flavours: they are powerful wines, but we have to work hard on the farm to express the terroir, otherwise we would only have concentrated wines. Here, the dry climate, the height and intensity of the sun make the grapes naturally develop phenolic structure,” he explains. And so, what in other regions of the world is hard to accomplish, here, it’s what we have: well-crafted wines with structure and balance.

Just look at a glass of Malbec or Cabernet in the region to have a clear idea “deep and opaque colours are dominant, with intense aromas, fruits and especially spices” explains the winemaker at Bodega El Esteco.

However, in terms of Torrontés, the criolla grape and emblem of the northern quebradas, this exaggerated climate moulds highly perfumed and floral whites, with fine body. Recently voted as the young winemaker of the year by Gaucho Annual Winemaker Awards, Mariano Quiroga Adamo says “due to the extreme climate, Torrontés matures in time with its terpene compounds, so if it does not work well in the vineyard and in the winery, it can give off a bitterness that not everyone likes.” In recent years, without going any further, most of the good Torrontés of the Northwest has offered an elegant profile, as well as aromatic, reflecting an increasingly careful preparation.

The southern steppe wines

Around the 38th parallel south latitude and following the Neuquén River and then the Rio Negro, lies the bulk of the vineyards of Patagonia: 3360 hectares. At an average height of 250 m.a.s.l, it is a large oasis, which crosses the region from West to East along the watercourse. Further south however, there are a handful of minor oases, though now they barely exceed 20 hectares.

In this region, the key is not so much the intensity of the sun, but the number of hours for which it shines. That, coupled with the constant wind and the wide temperature range of the desert, produces intense and concentrated wines, but in a very different way to the Northwest. For Marcelo Miras, winemaker at Bodega del Fin del Mundo, with more than two decades making wine in the region, the key is “in the wind, combined with the sun, which makes grapes thicken their skin, so the wines are naturally rich in phenolic substances, although they retain high natural acidity,” he explains.

That is the main difference with the rest of Argentina: acidity. While most other regions provide structured wines, with poor natural acidity.

Something that, in Patagonia is achieved with little effort. Hence, the reds are bright to look at, with good fruit in the nose, with whites armed with a voltage higher than average. Looking for that tension, in recent years, the Patagonian frontier has moved further south.

Thus in Paso del Sapo in Sarmiento, two minutes from the heart of Chubut, there are experimental vineyards producing sparkling wines. The same is happening in Los Antiguos, at the southern limit of vineyards in Argentina, where 1.5 hectares of vines are used to test the conditions around the Lago Buenos Aires.

However, in Patagonia the limit of the terroir imposes the early cold in the fall and the late frosts in spring. So the varieties that are best suited for medium and short cycle: in reds, “Malbec comes right along with Cabernet Franc – not Cabernet Sauvignon which only matures some years – and Merlot” says Miras. In whites, Chardonnay offers a delicate and tight profile while the Sauvignon Blancs are thin with traces of citrus and vegetables.

Written by Decanter

This region comprises the provinces of Río Negro, Neuquén and La Pampa. It is considered one of the most favorable places in the country for making wine and where top Argentine wineries have developed luxury projects. In partnership with Wines of Argentina

Río Negro, Neuquén and La Pampa together, have more than 4,550 ha of cultivated vineyards. One of the characteristics of this region is that winters are intense and summers are cool during the night, producing a combination of sugar, acidity and a lot of aromas.

Another special feature of the region is the slow and lengthy ripening of grapes. The altitude of its vineyards range from 300 to 500 meters above sea level. These characteristics grant Patagonian wines an elegant flavour and matchless aromatic intensity which show that Patagonia is the southernmost region under the sun for the development of the wine industry.

Patagonia has managed to position itself as one of the country’s regions where the quality of its wines is the major attribute. Its climatic conditions guarantee the health of the vineyards and an excellent quality of grapes, leading to intense wines, in terms of both color and aromas. All these features enable the region to achieve a great recognition nationally and worldwide.

Patagonia’s wines boast great personality, exhibiting a very striking color. They are expressive, fruity, and intense, with great acidity. These characteristics grant them longevity, reaching a ripening and aging with perfect timing.

There is a wide temperature range during the months of grape ripening, bestowing special features on wines, especially in the development of aromas, acidity, and colour (in red wines).

From the point of view of wine growing and making, the short and mid-cycle varieties are better adapted to Patagonia’s conditions than long-cycle ones. The main varieties are Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillón, Viognier among the white grapes, and Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon among reds.

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Written by Decanter