Argentina History of Winemaking
The wines of Argentina are always considered to be part of the New World, which is kind of strange when you think about it. After all they have been making wine here since the 1550’s, a century before South Africa, and well over 200 years before the Australians planted their first vines in 1788 – an experiment that promptly failed. But rather than dwell on other’s misfortune, let’s just say Argentina has a long history of wine-making.
Which begs the obvious question – why haven’t we heard more from the world’s fifth largest wine producer? Well, the first obvious answer is that Argentina had its own thirst to satisfy, this being a traditional wine drinking culture unlike Chile or South Africa. In 1970, the average Argentine drank a third of a bottle of wine a day which hoovered up every last drop produced. This amount has since dropped considerably which means there is now plenty to go round. Secondly things have been a bit volatile at times on the political, economic front, though all that has changed and the country is now far more stable. Of course what really matters is the wine, whose quality has got better and better as centuries of experience finally bears fruit.
The first Argentine vineyards were planted in the north and around Mendoza by the Spanish to make communion wine. Wherever there was irrigation, these early pioneers found the conditions pretty much ideal for making wine. There were cloudless skies and over 300 hours of sunshine a year. There were the right type of soils, and there were cool nights if you planted high enough. All that was needed was to match the right grape varieties with the right locations.
For this we must thank a young French agronomist called Miguel Pouget who was hired by Domenico Sarmiento, a future Argentine president, to bring vine cuttings back from France in the 1860’s. These included Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and above all Malbec which at the time was grown right across Southern France. Its most famous expression was the ancient ‘Black wine of Cahors’ and it was this rather than Burgundy or Bordeaux, that was the first wine ever recorded by the London Wine Exchange in the 11th century. In France the vineyards of Malbec have shrunk dramatically to just Cahors, but in Argentina the grape has found a true heaven on earth.
