Argentina: New White Releases 

BY JOAQUÍN HIDALGO | OCTOBER 31, 2024

Say you’re at a blind tasting of white wines. The first glass offers aromas of green apple, pineapple and country herbs. On the palate, it’s broad, with tart acidity and a creamy, concentrated feel. Where in the world would you guess it comes from? The second bottle presents tuberose, a touch of oil, a hint of orange blossom with a rich layer of lime on the nose and tart acidity rounded out by a bit of oak. The third, in contrast, is far less expressive and somewhat shy, with a little acacia and green apple and a fairly concentrated but ample, creamy, voluminous palate. Our hypothetical tasters might venture that the first is a Burgundian Chardonnay, from a warm year perhaps. The second, they’d muse, would most likely be from Alsace or a dry German white. The third would probably stump them completely. What I’m absolutely sure of is that unless they just so happen to be closely following recent developments in South America, no one would suggest Argentina. The explanation for this is quite simple: Argentina is known as a producer of reds, and whites don’t immediately spring to mind. And yet, these white wines are the country's most exciting category these days. The three blind samples in question would have been a high-altitude Chardonnay, a cool-climate Torrontés and an old vine, barrel-aged Sémillon.

Bodega Bemberg's fermentation room is equipped with all the technology needed to interpret high-altitude vineyards, including foudres, tanks and concrete.

The White Wine Scene

The white movida, as it’s known in Argentina, is gaining momentum. For my first report in 2020, it was quite an effort to gather 200 bottles. For this report, I barely had to lift a finger to find more than 400 wines to survey. The boom on this side of the Andes has three main drivers.

The first driver is related to terroir, as winemakers explore cooler, higher-altitude areas, especially in the Uco Valley, where elevations start at 3,900 feet. These vineyards, planted in the 2000s, represent about 2,500 hectares of new white vines. This sun-kissed, cool region is where light intensity and low average temperatures with warm summer afternoons combine to produce a new ripening point for Chardonnay and other varieties, directly impacting new wine styles. The resulting wines are fatty, tart and taut with moderate to highly concentrated palates and chalky or talcum textures, depending on where they come from. Good examples of this style include the 2023 Fósil Chardonnay, the 2022 Terrazas de los Andes Grand Chardonnay, the 2022 Buscado Vivo o Muerto El Cerro and the 2022 Trapiche Finca Las Piedras.

Today, producers are planting right at the limit of where it’s possible to grow vines. Here, the steep slopes offer some protection from frosts, and accumulated degree days are similar to those seen in Chablis or Champagne but with twice the amount of sunlight. White varieties grow slowly but steadily, thanks to the glaring sun. Geographic Indications meeting this description include La Carrera, El Peral and Gualtallary in Tupungato, San Pablo (where cloud cover, due to the proximity of the mountains, provides a little respite from the sun) and Los Chacayes in Tunuyán.

A close-up of the Plata range (reaching 5,900 meters above sea level), which frames much of Uco Valley’s highest vineyards, including those in the Gualtallary, El Peral and La Carrera districts.

The second factor is cultural. Up until the 1970s, Argentina drank more whites than reds. This began to change in the 1980s when the industry started to invest in the red wine market with a particular focus on Malbec. Because Argentinians tend to veer between extremes, now whites are bouncing back. To parity? Not quite yet, but enough for the general enthusiasm for new flavors in the domestic market to have changed the paradigm. And with it, the wines available for export.

This is where the third driver comes in. Producers are increasingly interested in the white segment because there’s much more room for growth and experimentation compared to a stagnating red market. What began as a flash-in-the-pan novelty with the first high-altitude whites just over a decade ago has been fanned into a flame by an eager domestic market. Today, the white wine segment is a treasure trove of potential discoveries for international palates, with a whole gamut of new flavors grouped around a few central axes. 

In La Carrera, Matías Riccitelli has been developing an intriguing range of wines and vineyards to showcase high-altitude and cool-climate whites, as well as old vines from the Río Negro region.

(A Few) Whites That Age Well