2020 Harvest Report: Chile and Argentina

BY JOAQUÍN HIDALGO | JULY 30, 2020

A Year When Mother Nature Had Her Say 

By the end of March 2020, almost every winery in Chile and Argentina had finished picking. Apart from a few small pockets, on both sides of the Andes the harvest was completed in record time. With ripening accelerated by a combination of climatic factors, and the looming threat of COVID-19 exerting pressure on work teams, we were presented with the unprecedented sight of bare vineyards at the end of March – generally not something you’d see until late April or early May.

The 2020 harvest was necessarily hurried, with a final sprint at the end, when uncertainty over the pandemic meant that grapes had to be pressed as fast as possible. But now that the wines have been made and are currently aging, oenologists and agricultural engineers finally have time to catch their breath and take stock. They agree that the early harvest proved to be a blessing given the subsequent coronavirus-related lockdowns (even if ultimately not many restrictions were applied to agricultural activities) but also, most importantly, with regard to its effect on the wine, although opinions differ as to exactly what that effect will be. This year, fortunately, most of the lessons taught by nature were benign; however, they still posed several technical challenges, as we will see below.

Weather conditions experienced by both countries included spring frosts, early heat and a general scarcity of water. In all the main regions, it was an unusual year that will be expressed in different ways depending on the specific characteristics of each terroir.

The Syrah harvest at Argento Vineyard in Agrelo, Mendoza, began very early this year: February 24. Photo by @juanpablomurgia

Argentina from South to North

All along the almost 1,500-mile stretch where vineyards grow in the Andes, 2020 was an unusual harvest. In the Argentinean provinces of Mendoza, San Juan and La Rioja and in northern Patagonia, where 95% of the vineyards are concentrated, harvest was brought forward by anywhere from two weeks to a month, depending on altitude and latitude. At either end – the Calchaquí Valleys to the north and southern Patagonia – and also the coastal vineyards, conditions were fairly normal.  

One of the reasons the harvest was brought forward was “the two frosts experienced in the spring of 2019, which lowered yields by between 20% and 30%, depending on the vineyards,” said Marcelo Belmonte, director of production at Grupo Peñaflor, which makes wines in every region of Argentina. According to official figures from the National Institute of Viticulture, yields were down 19% compared to 2019 and 33% compared to the average for the decade.

Additionally, the warm summer, “which saw up to five heat waves between December and January with temperatures above 32ºC for periods as long as a week, accelerated ripening even further,” noted Martín Kaiser, viticulturist at Doña Paula. The combination of these two factors, and with the general scarcity of water for irrigation –the water volume recorded in rivers dropped by 50%, worsening a long-term trend – led to faster sugar concentration. “With a ratio of more leaves to fruit as well, the plants accelerated the entire process,” added Belmonte.

“By January 15,” said Germán di Césare, head oenologist at Trivento, “we knew that the harvest would come early and we’d need to get to work if we didn’t want the grapes to go over.” In addition to the challenge presented by several different varieties ripening simultaneously and thus testing pressing capacities to the limit, the overriding issue was, what kind of wines would result? What were the potential levels of alcohol, acidity, tannins and color?   

The Noemia team in Rio Negro, Patagonia, selecting bunches from old Malbec vines. February 23. Photo by @vindingdiershans

A Change of Paradigm

Alejandro Vigil, director of oenology at Bodega Catena Zapata, stated it plainly: “There was a complete rupture in terms of phenolic maturity. That was the great lesson of this harvest. It was crucially important to adjust your winemaking process to the existing ripeness rather than trying to adjust the ripeness to suit the wine you’re looking to make. It’s the kind of change that usually takes years to get right, but we needed to implement it in a single harvest. That’s where we need to begin if we’re to aim for more balanced alcohol levels and wines that are neither over- nor underripe.”  

Those monitoring ripeness through Dyostem – a comparative method that studies aromatic profiles at the point when the plant ceases to produce sugar – had an extra tool to aid their calculations. The head of oenology at Cadus Wines, Santiago Mayorga, said, “In 2020, we harvested earlier, something we could have done in 2018 if we’d dared. This year we didn’t have a choice if we were going to avoid an overripe profile.” This was especially true for Malbec, which he thinks lost a little in concentration but gained in freshness.  

“This is a year when you had to throw the manual out the window,” said Alejandro Sejanovich, oenologist at Manos Negras. “The early ripening preserved the acidity.” Meanwhile, Noelia Torres, oenologist at Ruca Malen, said that “in a dry year, the greater thermal range led to more vivid, intense wines with greater acidity, especially malic acid, which lends more texture to the wines.”  

It is generally agreed that Malbecs that were properly harvested and made will express the characteristics of their terroirs better than ever. This is especially the case in higher-altitude regions where hotter days were balanced out by cool nights and mornings. “Vineyards in the Uco Valley breathed better. That’s where the best expressions are,” said Di Césare. When a map was spread out in front of them, those interviewed all pointed to Malbecs from the IGs of El Cepillo, Paraje Altamira, San Pablo and Gualtallary in Mendoza, and Pedernal in San Juan.

Vineyards in Agrelo, in Luján de Cuyo, present a similarly unique profile. “There, the clay soils, with properly judged irrigation, made it possible to manage the ripeness better,” said Matías Ciciani, oenologist at Escorihuela Gascón.