Argentina has a been making wine since the 1500s – initially by Spanish missionaries, and later by Italian settlers. Until very recently, Argentinian wines were exclusively domestic, but over the past 20 years, the country’s wine quality has seen a steady incline. Argentina now frequently ranks in the top percentile of quality wine-producing countries, and is the biggest producer of wine in South America.
With its vast and varied topography, Argentinian wine offers a wealth of different grapes and techniques that produce a huge range of flavours and textures. Here we’ve picked a few of our favourites, all available at The Great Wine Co, perfect for oenophiles and first-timers alike…
Signature White Blend from Susana Balbo, £22
This lovely wine is a Bordeaux blend with an Argentine twist. The expected Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc are combined with masterfully-crafted Torrontés – Susana is the ‘Queen of Torrontés’, after all. The result is wonderfully bright and aromatic, with freshness yet also layers of texture and complexity.
Floral and citrus notes combine with hints of fresh grass, white peach and orange. In the mouth, floral, fresh and fruity flavours are in perfect balance with the unctuousness that comes from barrel maturation.
Estacion 1883 Bonarda by Trapiche, £13.30
This full-bodied Bonarda from Mendoza offers great aromas of ripe plums, blackberries, spice and liquorice. It’s succulent and rich on the palate, with bags of fruit and a juicy and ever so slightly spicy finish.
Grapes hand-harvested and the wine is aged for 15 months in a blend of French and American oak barrels before filtering and bottling.
Maria Victoria Malbec by Bodegas Verum, £19.50
A Malbec with great elegance and class. With serious concentration of black fruit and liquorice on the nose and good structure in the mouth, it has excellent acidity that gives it a unique freshness.
Black cherry fruit on the nose, with cocoa powder, currant leaf and malt extract. Lovely texture on the palate: ripe, unashamedly New World fruit married to crisp acidity and defined but gentle tannin.
Rich and rounded, yet with beautiful freshness and sense of minerality. Take your time to sip it, because it gets even better: progressively more silky, with notes of liquorice and violets.
Old Vine Riesling by Humberto Canale, £19.50
Riesling from the far south of South America, all steel and citrus, but with a slice or two of white peach rounding things out.
Grapes are destemmed, crushed and pressed before being fermented in stainless steel tanks at between 14 and 16 degrees. Upon completion the wine is racked and filtered before bottling and release.