Argentina: New High-Altitude, High-Precision Whites 

BY JOAQUÍN HIDALGO | JUNE 24, 2021

Captivating. That’s the word for many of the white wines being produced in Argentina today. Precise fruit flavors, subtle herbal notes, expertly judged aging to produce varying degrees of concentration and ethereality, excellent freshness... each element is structured around a core of acidity, particularly among the more austere, saline incarnations. It might sound like we’re talking about Chablis, Vouvray or Sancerre. But no. We’re standing under the bright blue sky of Mendoza just a few miles from the glaciers that crown the Andes. 

Many of the more than 300 whites and sparkling wines I tasted this year hail from that landscape. I was familiar with most of them but encountered a few surprises along the way as well. To put it in a nutshell: the top scores went to Chardonnays and Sémillons, while a few sparkling blends of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay also knocked my socks off. In many cases their prices make them especially tempting in the current global market. But if you were to press me, I’d say that the real reason to try the best wines featured in this report is the simplest of them all: the sheer, unadulterated surprise of finding intense, original whites where you might least expect them, in the land of Malbec. 

La Carrera is the most extreme terroir in the Uco Valley. As high as 1,950 meters above sea level and with a climate as cool as Champagne, it contains a few scattered vineyards planted mainly with white varieties.

Mountain Chardonnay

The backbone of the vibrant wines of Argentina is also the backbone of the continent: the Andes mountain range, where one finds a mosaic of different heights and soil types that allow for the production of a range of styles. At a height of 5,000 feet in Mendoza, the average temperatures are those of a cool region such as Chablis, but the intensity of the solar radiation has almost the opposite effect. Handling this contrast is key, and the most precise whites reflect a job well done in that regard. 

“In such extreme conditions the work with the leaves must be very exact so they generate tunnels that allow for ventilation but also protect the bunches,” said Alejandro Vigil, the oenologist at Catena Zapata and the man responsible for Chardonnay White Bones & White Stones, a duo of whites that serve as benchmarks for producers across the region. “It’s technical, detailed stuff.” But the effort pays off in wines that genuinely reflect their landscape.

The setting for what has become a vanguard of the top Argentine whites is essentially an imaginary 30-mile arc running across the Uco Valley, beginning at an altitude of 3,200 feet in the Geographic Indication of Los Chacayes, and up through Los Árboles, San Pablo and Gualtallary, to La Carrera at 6,200 feet. Here, Chardonnay is queen of the white grapes (accounting for 1,950 hectares of vines) although Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon are also present, albeit in much smaller quantities. Except for a few planted lower down, 20 years ago these vineyards did not exist. 

“We’ve learned a lot about how to manage the vines in each place, because the soils, and rainfall, in San Pablo, are quite different from Gualtallary or Los Chacayes,” said Sebastián Zuccardi, the oenologist behind 2020 Fósil Chardonnay, one of the purest examples from what was generally a warm year.

Many winemakers are speaking in similar terms, as can be seen in some of the wines in this report. The hot weather in 2020 forced a rapid harvest, and a bunch of Chardonnays (from this area and beyond) overdid it a little with the alcohol, while a few achieved an ideal balance.  

Alejandro Sejanovich, winemaker of the 2019 Chardonnay Zaha, continued the theme: “Each sub-region has its own specific character. Gualtallary, for example, might seem like a cool region because of the altitude, but if the vines are planted in an area of sandy soils, the equation is inverted.” It’s the combination of in-depth knowledge of the regions, careful vine management and paying close attention to each and every detail that is driving mountain whites forward. Among the Chardonnays, the terroir is expressed with ever greater freshness, as we see in the intense 2019 Chardonnay Autóctono, the accessible 2020 Chardonnay Cadus Vista Flores Appellation and the meticulous 2018 Chardonnay Rutini Apartado, while some add a little salinity from their calcareous soils, such as the austere 2020 Chardonnay BenMarco, the modern 2019 Chardonnay Altaluvia and the skeletal but vibrant 2019 Buscado Vivo o Muerto La Verdad.

Winter in Gualtallary, Uco Valley. The high altitude mountain vineyards here and in neighboring San Pablo are producing a sharp new style of white wine from Argentina.

Aging and Other Whites