Focus on Argentina

Argentina has had an extended run of very good to excellent vintages, so vintage generalizations are of limited value. When there are no important climatological disasters, other variables become more important to ultimate wine quality, including crop levels, age of vines, altitude at which vines are planted, harvesting dates, and of course vinification and élevage strategies. The most talented producers manage to make very good wine year after year.

One excellent example is the relatively cool 2008 season, which most growers in Mendoza had to harvest on the late side. Clearly some did not get their fruit totally ripe and the patience of some late pickers was foiled by sharp mid-April frost. Yet the 2008s have turned out to be some of my favorite Argentine wines of recent years because they offer unusual aromatic lift, complexity and intensity, and a rare lightness of touch and elegance. These more restrained, suave wines may not be the favorite style for neophytes—and they may not even be the preferred style in the local Argentine market—but I suspect that the best of them will make Europhiles take another look at Argentina.