Argentina’s wine. Fresh styles, low prices attract U.S. consumers

Sorry, Evita, if there’s any crying going on in Argentina these days, it’s likely to be in the vineyards. And they’re tears of joy.

Sales of Argentine wine continue to build strongly in the United States, according to The Nielsen Co., a market research firm. The amount of Argentine wine sold here increased 29 percent in the last year (May to May), Nielsen reported.

Why Argentina? Why now?

“Best value, best quality, best-looking women, although the last one is just a fringe benefit,” quips Steve Weinberg of World Wine and Spirits, a wine brokerage based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Weinberg, who includes Argentine wineries among his accounts, recently was in Argentina, where he tasted wine from more than 25 wineries.

“The majority of the winemakers are young, under 35,” he said. “Several are expatriated Americans, and at least three were women.”

One of these ex-pats is Jeff Mausbach, former wine education director at Bodega Catena Zapata. An Argentine resident since 1996, he now is launching a wine line called Manos Negras.

“The Argentine wine industry has finally matured and learned that investing in quality, both in the vineyard and in the winery, will pay off in the long run,” he wrote in an e-mail from Argentina. “We have hit our stride.”

Mausbach said two factors make Argentine wine special: climate and value.

“Argentina has a very diverse collection of wine-growing regions, from Patagonia in the south to Salta in the north, spreading some 1,800 miles along the Andean corridor,” he noted. “Despite these huge swings in latitude, there is one constant: a unique combination of sunny, dry desert conditions with very cool day and night temperatures. If you think about it, this is a very unique character. Most sunny places are hot and most cool places don’t have a lot of sunshine. I like to call this concept ‘refrigerated sunshine.’”

As for value, the cost of winemaking is low. “As responsible Argentine producers have learned to plow this advantage back into the price-to-quality relationship in their wines, they have increasingly won over U.S. consumers,” he said.

Weinberg said he plans to target the so-called Millennials, the wine-savvy generation that came of age over the past decade, with Argentina’s “$9.99 great value malbecs, torrontes and fantastic cabs.”

More about Argentine wine industry

The Argentine wine industry is the fifth leading producer of wine in the world. Argentine wine, as with some aspects of Argentine cuisine, has its roots in Spain. During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, vine cuttings were brought to Santiago del Estero in 1557, and the cultivation of the grape and wine production stretched first to neighboring regions, and then to other parts of the country.

Historically, Argentine winemakers were traditionally more interested in quantity than quality with the country consuming 90% of the wine it produces (12 gallons/45 liters a year per capita according to 2006 figures). Until the early 1990s, Argentina produced more wine than any other country outside Europe, though the majority of it was considered unexportable. However, the desire to increase exports fueled significant advances in quality. Argentine wines started being exported during the 1990s, and are currently growing in popularity, making it now the second biggest wine exporter in Latinamerica behind Chile. The devaluation of the Argentine peso in 2002, following the economic collapse, further fueled the industry as production costs decreased and tourism significantly increased, giving way to a whole new concept of wine tourism in Argentina. The past years have seen the birth of numerous tourist-friendly wineries with free tours and tastings. The Mendoza Province is now one of Argentina’s top tourist destinations and the one whose economy has grown the most in the past years.

The most important wine regions of the country are located in the provinces of Mendoza and San Juan and La Rioja. Salta, Catamarca, Río Negro and more recently Southern Buenos Aires are also wine producing regions. The Mendoza province produces more than 60% of the Argentine wine and is the source of an even higher percentage of the total exports. Due to the high altitude and low humidity of the main wine producing regions, Argentine vineyards rarely face the problems of insects, fungi, molds and other grape diseases that affect vineyards in other countries. This permits cultivating with little or no pesticides, allowing even organic wines to be easily produced.

There are many different varieties of grapes cultivated in Argentina, reflecting her many immigrant groups. The French brought Auxerrois, which became known as Malbec, which makes most of Argentina’s best known wines. The Italians brought vines that they called Bonarda, although Argentine Bonarda appears to be the Corbeau of Savoie, also known as Charbono in California, which may be related to Dolcetto. It has nothing in common with the light fruity wines made from Bonarda Piemontese in Piedmont. Torrontés is another typically Argentine grape and is mostly found in the provinces of La Rioja, San Juan, and Salta. It is a member of the Malvasia group that makes aromatic white wines. It has recently been grown in Spain. Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Chardonnay and other international varieties are becoming more widely planted, but some varieties are cultivated characteristically in certain areas.
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SOURCES:

“Don’t cry for Argentina’s wine”
May 26, 2010
By Bill Daley
Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com

http://articles.chicagotribune.com

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-05-26/features/sc-food-0521-wine-argentine-column_1_argentine-wine-world-wine-wine-industry

“Argentine wine”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_wine