there are hotlinks to Argentinian wine sites here: Argentinian Wine Site

ET Thursday 29 March 2001

Grow vines for me, Argentina

Argentina's wines were its best-kept secret, but they deserve a wider audience, says Nicki Symington

MOST of us have a fairly unclear idea of Argentina. It probably includes Evita, Maradona, gauchos on horseback, penguins on ice caps, and beef. It probably doesn't feature vast mountains, arid deserts stretching as far as the eye can see, sophisticated cooking and wines to match.

Argentina is the fifth-largest wine producer in the world but is a Jose-come-lately to the world export market, and, in comparison with bigger New World wine producers such as Chile and Australia, it has to play a serious game of catch-up. "To use a football metaphor," says Guillermo Barzi, the president of the Patagonian wine company Humberto Canale, "we've only just gone into the tunnel. We've yet to make it out on to the pitch."

But this is about to change. Argentina has, until recently, concentrated on its home market and only in the past five years has it surfaced as a player. Having suffered for years under military governments, rocketing inflation and lack of investment, most wine producers focused on producing millions of litres for the home market, where consumers drank about 90 litres of wine per capita.

The wineries changed tack in 1990, and with home consumption totalling just 38 litres a head, they now concentrate on making low-yield, high-quality wines for export.

Most of these come from Mendoza, the main wine-growing area in Argentina. Salta, to the north, and Rio Negro, to the south, are also important. Mendoza sits to the far west of the country, high in the desert foothills of the Andes, closer to Santiago, the capital of Chile, than to Buenos Aires. Even before the conquistadores arrived from the north, the indigenous population had tapped the rivers of snow-melt that flow down from the mountains and, using canals, irrigated the desert and turned it into farmland.

Deep in scorching desert might seem an unlikely place to grow vines but Mendoza now lives and breathes wine and produces 1.2 billion litres a year. In fact, every March, the city holds a carnival to celebrate wine, complete with a gaudy parade through the streets and a televised beauty pageant hosted by a Latino Terry Wogan and attended by thousands.

Jose Zuccardi, the exuberant head of La Agricola winery, is one of many winemakers who has reason to celebrate. At his vineyards in Santa Rosa, to the south of Mendoza, he is constantly experimenting with grape varieties to see how they perform in the desert conditions.

The air is parched, which keeps disease in check, so that fungicides and pesticide spraying are rendered unnecessary. The hot, clear skies allow the grapes to ripen during the day but the sharp drop in temperatures at night means intensity of flavour and good acidity, all of which creates wines of interesting character.

Zuccardi is enthusiastic: "This is a winemakers' country. We have such variety of grapes and a greater degree of flexibility here than in Europe. We can be innovative because we have no history as far as the consumer is concerned."

He has a point. Although the conquistadors planted vines in the 16th century, Argentina's modern wine industry got going only when immigrants from Spain, Italy and France came to the country in the late 19th and early 20th century. They brought grape varieties from the old country - tempranillo and torrontes from Spain, barbera, bonarda and sangiovese from Italy, and from France, cabernet sauvignon, viognier and malbec.

It is this last grape that has come to characterise Argentinian wine. Jo Wadsack, of Waitrose, says: "Argentina is going to do for malbec what New Zealand has done for sauvignon blanc. In other words, Argentinian winemakers are taking a lacklustre grape, which in France is tooth-shreddingly tannic when young and used mostly for blending, and giving it a character all of its own."

Nicolas Catena, Mendoza's most feted winemaker, agrees. "For the French, malbec is not relevant. Even for the Californians. Used properly, it is magnificent. The best red wines from Argentina are made from malbec with just a little cabernet sauvignon."

Mendoza's potential has, in the past five years, attracted a good deal of outside interest and investment. Winemakers from France and elsewhere, such as Jacques Lurton and Moet & Chandon, have bought up tracts of land to plant with vines, and winemakers are jostling to build the newest, most futuristic wineries. Chandon recently opened the doors to its new Terrazzas bodega, and Nicolas Catena is soon to launch his new Catena Zapata winery, built to reflect a Mayan temple and emphasising the South American identity of his product.

Although the wine trade press has for the past five years gushed its enthusiasm for Argentina and called it the sleeping giant, the wines haven't struck a nerve with British consumers. "It takes a while for a wine to become a safe purchase and Argentine wines have been perceived as an adventure-driven purchase," enthuses Julian Dyer, of Sainsbury's wine department, in marketing-speak. "But they have all the fruit of New World wines, as well as the structure and complexity of the Old World. It's only a matter of time before they lose their cultish status and go mainstream." And he should know because Sainsbury's has just doubled its Argentine range. Maybe the giant has just had a wake-up call.

Argentine wines to buy

Catena Alta Malbec 1997 (£20, Fortnum & Mason 020 7734 8040, La Reserve 020 7589 2020, Bacchanalia, Cambridge, 01223 576292).

Santa Julia Tempranillo 2000 and Santa Julia Bonarda Sangiovese 2000 (£4.49 each, Sainsbury's).

Canale Estate Merlot 1999 (£9.99, Marks & Spencer). This winemaker is not based in Mendoza but in the Rio Negro valley in northern Patagonia, where, thanks to his southern latitude and cooler climate, he produces very sophisticated wines in a European style.

Norton Privada 1998, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot (£10.99, Oddbins).

Bodega Lurton Pinot Gris 2000 (£4.49, Waitrose, Wine Rack, Bottoms Up).

Vina Amalia Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 (£7.49, Oddbins).

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001