Pale, pure-fruited Criollas; cloudy, skin-contact Torrontés; an explosion of micro-vinification; and a very cool somm scene in Buenos Aires – this is what wine looks like today in Argentina. A winemaking scene that has “one foot in tradition and one foot in innovation”.
“It’s very difficult to put this wine on my dad’s table,” says Daniel Manzur, winemaker at Bodega El Bayeh, nodding at his see-through cherry-red Criollo Chica. It hasn’t been easy to launch a Criolla project to the traditional Malbec loyalists, he tells me, but his Criolla wines from Jujuy are making waves with a new generation of wine lovers, particularly with the young, open-minded sommeliers in Buenos Aires. His crunchy, rugged reds have caught the attention of the US too, with 50% of the total production heading there.
Perhaps for his dad, and others of the same ilk, there is a 100% Malbec wine in the El Bayeh range, Trópico Su Tinto. Vibrant, expressive, whole-cluster characteristics, with a lick of oak and a fine-but-firm tannic structure – this is the new style of Malbec sweeping across Argentina and out into the world.
With one foot in tradition and one foot in innovation, Manzur is not alone in providing a range of wines to suit the spectrum of palates in a changing Argentina.
“The styles can live together,” says Lucia Romero of Salta winery, El Porvenir, as she shows me the Alto Los Cuises 2019 next to the El Porvenir 2018. The Alto Los Cuises, in its wax-sealed bottle, is “going towards the lighter, fresher style of Malbec”, while the “family icon”, El Porvenir, respects the powerful, ripe-fruited Malbec benchmark style that Argentina is renowned for.
Strong at home
“As a market, Argentina is very important for us,” explains Romero. “It’s 50% of our production: we sell our wines here and we never want to lose the presence here. We sell quite a lot in our region, Salta, too: everyone’s drinking local wine.”
The flourishing restaurant culture in Buenos Aires has also had a huge impact on the wines people are drinking and has led the way when it comes to changing trends and styles, she says.
“Gastronomy is booming. There’s a lot of great new restaurants and we’re seeing different cuisines, like sushi. Torrontés is something we sell very well here. When I started, there was no Torrontés on wine lists. It was old-fashioned – they had Chardonnay, but now they have Torrontés from many regions. There’s a couple of places that you go to because of the wine list – that’s a new thing. Plant-based restaurants are becoming more popular, too, and they are all looking for lighter wines, fresher wines. It’s nice to see the wine lists reflecting different types of food,” she explains.
Argentina might be opening its doors to the world, but this also means that retaining its own wine consumers is fundamental. Local sales in Argentina, for example, account for 25% of Otronia’s total production from its winery in Patagonia. Maximo Rocca, its commercial director, says: “Argentina is important for us. To be successful, you need to be successful in your market.”
Sebastian Zuccardi, of Zuccardi Valle de Uco, agrees: “As a family, we are committed to the local market.”
Key export markets
While it is honourable and necessary to keep high quality Argentinian wine in Argentina, nurturing export markets and international relationships has been crucial for Argentinian wineries, especially in recent times.
Juan Marco, chief executive and director of viticulture and winemaking at Finca Decero in Mendoza, describes sales in Argentina this year as “a disaster” because of the “challenging and volatile situation with the economy”. Finca Decero exports between 97-98% of its total production, but Marco insists there is still a healthy domestic market for its premium wines. Even Bodegas Lopez, who, for over 120 years, never exported its wines, started shipping a portion of its wines out of the country four years ago.
The UK market remains a key export market and is on the wishlist for most wineries that don’t UK representation.
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