Argentina on the Couch: Malbec, Terroir and Other Trends

BY JOAQUÍN HIDALGO | NOVEMBER 18, 2021

An inexplicable country lurks in the far south of the Americas. Heavily influenced by the culture of psychoanalysis – the number of psychologists and psychoanalysts per capita is the highest in the world at 198 for every ten thousand inhabitants – the population of Argentina spends a lot of time on couches, both real and metaphorical, debating its achievements and drawbacks.

Although the economy is dominated by the production, processing and export of raw materials – soybeans accounted for a third of total exports in 2020, while lithium is the grand new hope – Argentina also exports nuclear and other cutting-edge technologies via INVAP (Investigación Aplicada) and launches its own research satellites. Forty percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and with the odd, short-lived bout of stability, the country has been suffering from an inflation crisis for the past 80 years. Even so, some of the country’s universities rank with the best in the world (QS World University Rankings). Argentina is also home to the largest technological unicorns on the continent; from Mercado Libre, the Amazon of South America, to Globant, a software giant. Seven of Argentina’s companies are now valued at over a billion dollars. On the labor market, 2.4 million workers are registered as self-employed, while just 9.6 million people out of a population of 45 million are officially receiving salaries, proof positive of an entrepreneurial spirit if ever there was one.

No wonder everyone’s running to their local psychiatrist.

On the cultural plane, Argentina can boast universally renowned writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar, a rock scene popular across Latin America, and world-famous sports stars including two of the best footballers to ever grace the game – Maradona and Messi – not to mention the current Pope. The country provides free, universal education, and its COVID vaccination rates are the highest in the region with 70% having received at least one dose while 55% are fully vaccinated. 

So, Argentina is a country of contrasts; one that in 2013, declared wine as the “national drink”, and whose drinkers drove consumption during the pandemic to 20 liters per capita. The fifth largest wine producer in the world (after Italy, Spain, France and the United States), Argentina is, of course, the spiritual home of the universally popular Malbec, high altitude vineyards and the most southerly wine producers in the world to date. 

A country with that kind of pedigree deserves attention for those reasons alone, but I believe that three more reasons stand out. One: Argentina is home a range of terroirs that are being studied in depth with great care and scientific rigor. Two: The internal market offers a resource that allows wineries to experiment with different styles from which they can choose the best style for export. Three: There’s something about forever living on the verge of a nervous breakdown that stimulates one’s ingenuity and creativity, and that comes out in bottle.  

I tasted 1,050 wines for this report, and the chief takeaway is that these days, Argentine winemakers are extremely motivated to broaden their horizons and improve upon their past successes. In my opinion Argentina is making the best wines in its history. 

A Riccitelli Wines vineyard planted in Estancia La Carrera, Uco Valley, at an altitude of 5,700 feet above sea level with mostly Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir.

Contrasting Scales

Most wine production in Argentina, which overall boasts 214,000 hectares of vineyards, takes place in the west, at the foot of the Andes mountain range. Mendoza is by far the most important province for the wine industry, accounting for 70% of overall production, while neighboring San Juan accounts for another 20%. The remaining output is mostly spread across the Calchaquí Valleys to the north (we published my report on the region last winter), La Rioja and Patagonia (an in-depth write-up on Patagonia will be coming soon).

Overall, Argentina produces about 2 billion liters of wine, of which ten percent gets exported. In 2020, the leading markets for Argentine wines were the USA (24.3 million liters), followed closely by Canada (21.6) and the United Kingdom (20.1). Then came Brazil (5.2), the Netherlands (3.3) and the rest of the world. Malbec accounted for 23% of the $791,0000,000 worth of overall exports in 2020.

Compared to other new world countries, the ratio of domestic consumption to exports makes for an unusual model. In fact, you might describe Argentina as still having one foot in the old world. Argentina produces a large number of commercial wines, but also plenty of wines rooted in their terroirs, some of which have been producing wine for centuries, while other terroirs didn’t even exist 20 years ago. It is out of this friction between heritage and a contemporary outlook that the best bottles arise. 

Malbec’s Universe

There’s no doubt that Argentina has plenty of Malbec, and the more it produces, the more wineries explore its virtues and test its limits. “It’s a variety that expresses the place it came from, or the style of the producer, first and the qualities of the grape itself second,” says Sebastián Zuccardi, director of the family winery behind some of the standout Malbecs in this report. Essentially, a Malbec can be a great many different things; it varies so widely and subtly that the variety alone isn’t an adequate description. From first-hand experience, I know that Malbecs can be as skinny and fruity as a Pinot Noir or, as dense and tarry as a Carménère. Among the thousand or so bottles I tasted, 481 were Malbecs hailing from 80 different terroirs and presenting at least half a dozen identifiable styles, proving how malleable the variety really is. The top scoring examples show how strong quality can be when its qualities are well-harnessed. 

A superb view of snowfall in the Andes seen from this Rutini Wines vineyard in Gualtallary, Uco Valley. At 3,900 feet above sea level, this vineyard is planted mostly with Malbec.

Terroirs & Malbec

Of the 43,000 hectares that have been planted with Malbec in Argentina, 85% are in Mendoza. The image that Mendoza projects to the world is a land of snowy peaks and vast deserts. And, to a point, that’s fair. The province is only slightly smaller than the state of Washington, but has six times the surface area under vine, about 150,000 hectares, and its soils and altitudes vary widely. 

To put it simply: if you drive 35 miles from the City of Mendoza up into the vineyards in the Andean foothills (about 40 minutes), you’ll have arrived at the top of the Uco Valley and risen to an altitude of 5,000 feet. On the way, you’ll have travelled from an area as warm as the Lodi Valley, where the soils are finely grained, to one as cold as Champagne, where they’re much stonier.  

Saying that a wine comes from Mendoza is about as useful in Argentina as saying that a French wine comes from Bordeaux; however, Malbecs can be a useful guide to the range of temperatures and soils in the province. “Malbec reflects variations in terroir very clearly,” says Martín Kaiser, technical director of Bodega Doña Paula and the author of a study on these nuances entitled, Characterization Project for Argentine Wines. “Even slight variations in the terroir come out clearly,” he says. In keeping with the conclusions of these tasting, I found that from about $20.00 upward, the Malbecs offered a diverse range of flavors that reflect their specific points of origin.   

A consumer looking for light, fresh Malbecs is best served heading up to the higher areas of the Uco Valley, in the Geographic Indications (GI) of Gualtallary, Los Chacayes, San Pablo and Paraje Altamira, all of which will be indicated on the label. Those who prefer the sweet tannins and voluminous feel that made the grape famous will prefer to look to Luján de Cuyo and GIs such as Las Compuertas, Vistalba, Perdriel and Agrelo. The key lies in the place of origin – which is labeled much more clearly these days – and on the producer.

But, it’s become a mantra among producers that if you get the harvest time wrong, you can forget about terroir all together. One of its leading proponents, Alejandro Sejanovich, who runs the Buscado Vivo o Muerto winery, explains, “Harvest when the grape is still firm and springy, not overripe, and Malbec will deliver the character of the place it came from.” These words represent the tip of an iceberg that rewards further exploration.