More than malbec: the diverse wines of Argentina
Altos Las Hormigas Colonia Las Liebres Mendoza Bonarda Clasica Mendoza 2023 (from £12.49, Shelved, Hay Wines, Fenwick) For food and drink producers, there are certain benefits to working in a region world-renowned for doing one thing very well. Whether the product in question is parmesan, jersey royals or champagne, it means a lot of marketing has been done on your behalf before you so much as milk a cow or pick a potato or grape. But for the ambitious, it can be restrictive when it comes to making subtle tweaks. Argentine winemakers, for example, are proud their country has become synonymous with a single red grape variety. But rather than talking up their malbecs, many will be much happier showing off wines they make from other varieties, such as the super-supple, spicy succulence of Altos Las Hormigas’s refreshingly red plum-juicy bonarda.
Bodegas Atamisque Serbal Cabernet Franc, Uco Valley, Mendoza 2022 (from £16.95, Stroud Wine, Whitmore & White, Noble Green Wines) One variety that has come to be regarded as a potential next big thing in Argentina is cabernet franc. It lags behind malbec in terms of the area planted: mighty malbec has just under 46,000 hectares of the total 197,000ha Argentine vineyard, while cab franc has a rather meagre-looking 1,300ha. But, as a committed fan of cabernet franc in its French incarnation, I am often impressed by the slightly fuller, plumper but still fundamentally fresh styles currently being made in Argentina. Atamisque’s Serbal (in particularly lucid, graphite-and-cassis-scented form in the 2022 vintage), is a good place to start. And in an entirely different style, I loved the plushly creamy, but still agile Pulenta Estate XI Gran Cabernet Franc 2020 from Mendoza (£35.86, strictlywine.co.uk, vinvm.co.uk).
El Porvenir de los Andes Pequeñas Fermentaciones Naranjo, Cafayate, Salta 2023 (£18.40, Bludge, Cambridge Wine) The comeback stars of new-wave Argentinian winemaking are the criolla family of grapes that are the descendants of the first varieties introduced to South America by the Spanish in the 1500s. Until recently, they were regarded as basic bases for, at best, so-so quality cheap plonk and were looked down upon by producers in the 1980s and 1990s with an urge to make more ‘serious’ wines from classical French varieties. But today’s winemakers have rediscovered these distinctively Argentine vines and have used them to make some stylishly funky modern wines, such as El Porvenir’s orange-blossomy blend of criolla-variety torrontés with muscatel from the northern Salta province, and the cherry-scented red of Matias Morcos Criolla Chica, Mendoza 2022 (£19.50, stroudwine.com, noblegreenwines.co.uk).
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