Argentina Annual Report: Conjuring Greatness Beyond Malbec

Some say malbec is the king of Argentine wines, but the two 100-point and six 99-point scores we gave in our tastings of more than 2,000 wines over the past year send out another strong message: Argentina conjures greatness in diverse ways beyond its traditional sweet spot.

The perfect-scoring Bodega Norton Semillón Argentina Vino Fino Blanco 1959, for example, is a delicious time capsule of semillon’s heyday in Argentina. While it’s not a commercially important wine (just a few hundred bottles remain in Bodega Norton’s cellar), it stands as testament to the rise and fall of semillon, which was the second-most-planted white grape variety in Argentina half a century ago but now comprises just 800 hectares.

When Norton's chief winemaker, David Bonomi, opened and shared a bottle with me at their winery in Perdriel, in the Mendoza wine region, it practically gave me goosebumps with its vitality and endless finish of truffles. Even though I know there are only great bottles for a wine of this age, rather than great wines, it proves the exceptional ageability of Argentine semillon.

Nowadays when producers make a semillon, they should be ready to embrace the effort despite the limited commercial prospects, giving the process their full faith and commitment in the knowledge that a delectable result potentially awaits.

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A few wineries that make semillon have taken this risk and enjoyed the payoff, including Riccitelli, Michelini i Mufatto, El Enemigo, Mendel, Zuccardi and new entrants like Trivento, who delivered an exciting semillon from their Eolo vineyard in 2021. Mundo Reves, a smaller project run by Thibault Lepoutre and Quentin Pommier, also scored big with their Mundo Revés Mendoza Tupungato L'Écume 2021.

The cooler 2021 vintage was certainly a great year for semillon and just about anything else, for that matter, with many of the wines showing excellent freshness and tension.

Bonomi said that 2021 was close to 2019 in the Perdriel area. “It rained in February, which complicated the harvest of some whites, but the quality is excellent for reds,” he told me. “2018 and 2020 were warmer, and 2020 was the warmest. For 2022, it depends more on the place, but for Perdriel it was warmer and more concentrated, with sweeter fruit.”

Almost everyone we talked to agreed that 2021 was a winemaker's dream vintage, where they could harvest at their own pace after the warm, short and Covid-stricken 2020.

"In 2020, we had three weeks of high temperatures from mid-February, so we decided to harvest at the very beginning of March," said Gerald Gabillet, the head winemaker for Cheval des Andes.

The onset of Covid added insult to injury. "The pandemic in Mendoza happened in the middle to the end of the harvest, and there were weeks where we didn't know if we could continue to harvest,” Gabillet said.

Alejandro Sejanovich, who makes around 80 wines in Mendoza, Salta, and Jujuy, with his winemaking partner Jeff Mausbach, said there was a fear in Mendoza that year that the harvest would stop, although they were eventually allowed to continue. Still, he said, conditions were “chaotic.”

Mausbach said that 2021 was even cooler than 2019, and the temperatures were like the El Niño vintage of 2016, but a lot drier in terms of precipitation.

"A frost on Oct. 5 affected some chardonnay and pinot in the Uco Valley. Spring was dry, which helped keep yields low, allowing for excellent hang time in the cool, early autumn. The quality was extraordinary, and it was one of the best vintages in the last 50 years," he said.

The wines he and Sejanovich made in Mendoza, especially their Buscado Vivo o Muerto offerings, showed more fineness, tension, and clarity than in 2020 and 2019, and were generally a step up in quality.

The respected American winemaker and consultant Paul Hobbs of Viña Cobos in Mendoza also gushed about the 2021 vintage, calling it the best of the last 10 years. "And that's a lot to say considering 2017, 2018 and 2019,” he said. “We think 2021 is the granddaddy of them all.”

Santiago Achaval of Perdriel-based Bodega Matervini also expressed a fondness for 2021, calling it an excellent vintage for them, both in Mendoza and Salta. The cooler weather helped the wines retain a greater balance of fruit, tannins and acidity.

"We had very good weather, but mostly on the cooler side without the heatwaves that stress the vines. There was perfect ripeness. There was no under-ripeness but no cooked character either, which means we didn't need to over-water the vineyard," Achaval said.

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His wines highlight the natural concentration that comes from his low-yield vineyards, underpinned by the beautiful balance of 2021. Their top wine for us was the Matervini Malbec Valles Calchaquíes Imposibles 2021 from Pucará de Angastaco, which sits at an elevation of more than 2,200 meters in Salta. This wine shows remarkable freshness and superb concentration, length and power – but nothing in excess.

For Laura Principiano, the head winemaker for Zuccardi in Mendoza, 2020 and 2021 were both marvelous vintages but with very different climatic conditions. “2020 was warmer than 2021, so the harvest was early, and the picking window was very short,” she said. “Lots of grapes and parcels ripened at the same time. 2021 was much cooler, so the conditions led to an easier harvest. We managed to harvest at our own pace."

Despite the challenges from the climate and Covid in 2020, Zuccardi’s offerings from the year are consistently high caliber, and some are even on par with the acclaimed 2019 vintage – a year Sebastian Zuccardi considers the best they have ever had in Uco Valley.

This is exemplified in their Zuccardi Malbec Valle de Uco Paraje Altamira Finca Canal Uco 2020, a stellar malbec that is deep, pristine, pure and fresh with ultra-fine, immaculate tannins. It’s a concentrated yet pristine wine that shows confidence in its raw complexity of place and fruit.

“Mendoza is austere [in its landscape], and we make mountain wines, so the wines should show the place,” Zuccardi, who heads the operations at his family winery, told me. “There is nothing opulent or exuberant about it." All his wines speak the same language, from their entry-level malbecs to their top, single-vineyard wines from Paraje Altamira, Gualtallary and San Pablo.

We also found mineral austerity in some Argentine cabernet francs, including the perfect-scoring El Enemigo Cabernet Franc Gualtallary Gran Enemigo Single Vineyard 2019 – the first South American cabernet franc to get our highest rating.

It's impressive how this wine, from a 1.5-hectare plot in Gualtallary, delivers nervy freshness and mineral tension from the vineyard's complex, calcium-carbonate-rich soils. It is deliciously textured with mealy, chalky tannins that dissolve on the palate, underscoring the purity that came with the dry and moderately cool 2019 vintage, which was a truly great year in Mendoza, especially in the Uco Valley, and one that will be remembered for a long time.

Another top bottle from Gualtallary that showed similar mineral austerity from this exceptional vintage was the Bemberg Estate Wines Gualtallary Valle de Uco Pionero 2019. This is Bemberg’s powerhouse of malbec, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, with a dense yet cohesive Chateau Latour-like structure, fascinating depth and minerality that will age effortlessly.

REFINEMENT AND TENSION IN 2021

Alejandro Vigil, the winemaking director for Bodega Catena Zapata who, along with vineyard manager Luis Reginato, looks after the top-notch malbecs and chardonnays coming from one of Argentina's grand crus, Adrianna vineyard in Gualtallary, was responsible for churning out some elegant wines in 2021, underpinned by their freshness, precision and clarity.

According to Catena Zapata managing director Laura Catena, 2021 was similar in coolness to 2016 but not as rainy, which explains the refinement and tension in many of the wines. Vigil added that 2021 was much more uniform in quality compared with the wetter and more extreme 2016, where only the top terroirs produced exceptional wines. For the lower range, it was a challenging El Niño year.

One of the top malbecs from 2021 is the Catena Zapata Malbec Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae 2021. Coming from a 1.4-hectare parcel, it shows impressive depth, concentration and finesse. Its complexity and subtle mossy and wet-earth notes set it apart from Catena Zapata’s more mineral, chalky expression from their five-hectare Fortuna Terrae vineyard and the more ethereal, pinot-esque rendition from their 2.6-hectare River parcel.

As for Argentine chardonnays, the Adrianna Vineyard White Bones 2021 is one of the most idiosyncratic wines to ever come out of South America, with its wild thyme, rosemary, ginger and spice notes. Its exotic and seductive nose perfectly reflects the extreme landscape of higher Gualtallary, where vines are planted with tons of wild herbs.

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These same characteristics are also found in the malbecs planted at extreme altitudes in Gualtallary, especially in the warmer 2020 vintage. The Terrazas de los Andes Malbec Gualtallary Valle de Uco El Espinillo Parcel N 1E 2020 is one of this vintage's freshest offerings, taking you straight to the vineyard with its exotic aromas of wild herbs, grilled tarragon and depth of fruit. It's a sensational red coming from a staggering 1,630 meters elevation. The harvest was relatively late in this otherwise early vintage at that altitude because of the extremely cool climate.

"We are at a high altitude, and we are taking all the risks to deliver freshness," said Herve Birnie-Scott, Terrazas de los Andes' estate director and head winemaker. He called the wine a "malbec harvested from the moon," adding that "Argentina can deliver much more than just generic, big and sweet malbecs."

Some great malbecs also came out of Salta and Jujuy, showing loads of personality from even more extreme-altitude vineyards. Sejanovich and Mausbach, together with Diana Bellincioni, made several unique mountain wines carrying the full expression of the steep terroir. Their Huichaira Vineyards Jujuy Cielo Arriba 2020, for example, comes from a two-hectare vineyard planted in 2014 at 2,750 meters in Quebrada de Huichaira, near Tilcara in Jujuy, and is a super energetic expression from a co-fermentation of malbec, cabernet sauvignon and syrah. It’s full of spices, wild herbs and vibrant fruits. Their other projects, including Almacén de la Quebrada, are equally exciting.

Other producers like El Esteco and Colomé, the latter of which makes one of the world's ultra-extreme wines – the Colomé Malbec Altos Valles Calchaquíes Altura Maxima 2020, which comes from a great altitude of 3,111 meters ­– also showed us inspiring wines.

That said, some overextracted wines are still made, even from Salta and Mendoza's most promising, high-altitude vineyards. For example, producers in Los Chacayes make some of the most brooding and powerful malbecs in Mendoza, yet there are still winemakers trying to stretch concentration and the magnify structure, resulting in overly tannic and monolithic malbecs that beg for more juiciness and fluidity on their rather thick and full-bodied palates.

LESS IS (MUCH) MORE

On the other side of the spectrum (and country), there are probably no better examples of pinot noirs and malbecs that show off the philosophy of "less can be much more” than Bodega Chacra in Patagonia.

Bodega Chacra’s owner and founder, Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, picks early and makes wines using a tea-infusion method, with minimal extraction. Fermentation happens in shallow, round tanks with indigenous yeast and plenty of whole bunches.

Of course, you'd expect something natural, nervy and ethereal in the pinots, but not quite in a Burgundian way. Instead, they are rather neoclassical, with extreme freshness and digestible berry fruit, as if standing at the crossroads of Burgundy and Beaujolais and aiming for the best of both worlds – grace and class from the former and the vivacity and drinkability from the latter. The Chacra Pinot Noir Patagonia Treinta y Dos 2022 is the best example of how 2022 will become a memorable vintage for the top pinots of the estate.

"I like 2022, and I think it is one of the best vintages, if not the best, across the line," Incisa della Rocchetta said. "It was a very well-balanced vintage. We had a good winter, not super cold but cold at the right moments with some frosts. It was not a hot vintage, so we are talking about 12.5 percent alcohol for the reds and 13 percent for the whites."

He also stressed the importance of picking early to keep the wine as natural as possible with low alcohol. "We are not acidifying the wines, so the idea is to pick early. Compared with 2004, our first vintage, we are picking almost a month earlier."

The two chardonnays from 2022 that Incisa della Rocchetta makes with Jean-Marc Roulot are equally exciting. The mineral, flinty Chacra Chardonnay Patagonia Mainqué 2022 is a dead ringer for a grand cru Chablis but only costs a fraction of the price. The Chacra Chardonnay Patagonia 2022, meanwhile, is of a more Puligny or Meursault style – a little creamier and rounder, but also arguably very Roulot, showing composed freshness, texture and sensational purity.

After tasting a few thousand wines from Argentina this year, we feel that few countries today better capture the essence of true mountain wines than Argentina, which is all about the diverse soils found at altitude and the terrific malbecs that result, even though the country still has a long way to catch up to its neighbor, Chile, as far as varietal diversity goes.

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"In Argentina, we have a lot of diversity of soils, but we may not have as much diversity of climate as in Chile,” said the Jura-born winemaker Philippe Rolet, who regularly commutes between Mendoza and Santiago as the managing director of Los Vascos in Chile and Bodega Caro in Argentina. “In Argentina, most of the vineyards are at the foothills of the Andes. Of course, you can go to the south down to the Atlantic area, but there is not a huge difference as there is for Chile between the north and south, the east and west. In Argentina, we are more focused on the massal selections and the best terroirs for malbec because of the altitude and soil.”

Still, the sense of place and precision are readily apparent in many of Argentina’s malbecs, chardonnays and cabernet francs. And you can always take advantage of the fun and drinkable yet genuine wines from talented winemakers like Matias Riccitelli, who told us that his offerings are “not too conventional but not too crazy, either.”

Wherever you stand on the scale between austerity-minerality and opulence-ripeness, Argentina has much to offer every wine lover.

– Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor

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