Expert's Choice: 18 scintillating South American sparkling wines

When fabled Champagne house Moët & Chandon first decided to open a winery outside France, it set its sights on South America.

Chile had been making sparkling wine since 1879, Argentina since 1902 and Brazil since 1913.

All three countries were considered, but Moët & Chandon ultimately settled on Mendoza after experimental harvests in the late 1950s.

Chandon Argentina was formally established in Luján de Cuyo in 1959; its Brazilian sister estate followed in 1973.

These were among the first major modern multinational wine investments in South America, and it’s no minor detail that they were for sparkling wine.

Over the past half-century, South America has become a growing force in sparkling wine production.

A thirsty local market has long celebrated life’s highs and lows with bubbles and most production stays close to home.

But as Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay gain renown abroad, some of their top sparkling wines are finally beginning to make their way into international markets.

Pushing the limits

When Chandon first invested in Mendoza, the vineyards were mostly at the lower, more accessible elevations, but as the region shifted from volume to quality in the 1990s, Chandon began to look for cooler climates, which meant planting higher.

The company was among the pioneers of Gualtallary, first planting vineyards there in 1990 at more than 1,200m.

Although the region is now better known for Malbec, some of its earliest modern plantings were Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, destined for sparkling wine.

The high-elevation Uco Valley remains one of the key sources for Argentina’s top bubbles today.

In Chile, the quest for a cooler climate has focused primarily on the Pacific coast, where the Humboldt Current brings low temperatures that lock vibrant acidity and crispness into the fruit.

The regions of Limarí, San Antonio, Casablanca and Aconcagua are especially important for sparkling wine, and are home to some of the country’s key vineyards for bubbles.

Uruguay, too, looks to the (Atlantic) coast for its coolest climates, notably in Maldonado and Canelones.

The other frontier lies further south.

While Chile’s Secano Interior has been a focal point for sparkling País for more than a decade, through Miguel Torres’ Estelado, Torres and others have increasingly looked to Malleco, Osorno and Lago Ranco.

These cooler, wetter, volcanic-lake regions offer racier styles, with sharper acidity and greater tension.

In Argentina, producers are pushing further south in Patagonia, most thrillingly in Chubut, where Otronia is making some of the continent’s most sophisticated sparkling wines.

Meanwhile, Brazil has taken sparkling wine as its emblem, with several houses and families specialising in bubbles.

Perhaps the most notable is Família Geisse, whose work in Pinto Bandeira helped define one of South America’s most important sparkling terroirs – and its only DO entirely focused on the style.

Brazil’s traditional-method sparkling wines are often autolytic, toasty and savoury, while Italian immigration left a deep mark through Moscatel, Brazil’s joyful answer to Asti-style bubbles, as well as Prosecco-inspired tank-method wines from aromatic varieties.

South America's best sparklers

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