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JANUARY 2012 -
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MAGAZINE -
33
MENDOZA
Wines of the world
ARGENTINA
hen you talk about
Argentine wines,
you must start with Mendoza. This
gigantic region in the western part the
country, directly west of Buenos Aires
on the coast, accounts for over 70
percent of the country’s wines.
Mendoza is one of the driest wine
regions on the planet;
it rains, on the aver-
age, about two days
a year (7 to 8 inches
a year). Ironically, I
was in Mendoza city
on one of those two
days a few years
ago, when it was
pouring buckets!
But most of the
year it’s so
dry that
you have
to cover
your mouth
when trucks
go by, kick-
ing up dust
from the
road.
The climate
is conti-
nental,
with very
warm sum-
mers and
very cool
winters.
(Like many
other wine
regions,
spring and
fall are the best times to visit.)
Believe it or not, in 1994, Hugh
Johnson’s Fourth Edition of The World
Atlas of Wine (generally considered
the Bible
of the wine
world since
its first ap-
pearance in
1971) did not
even deign to
cover Argen-
tina, even
though it was
the world’s
fourth-largest
wine pro-
ducer at that
time. South
America’s
only represent-
ative in the
fourth edition
was Chile.
But the Hugh
Johnson/Jancis Robinson Fifth Edition,
out in 2001, now includes Argentina,
which actually now is fifth-largest wine
producer (having been overtaken by
the U.S.).
Malbec is a great success story; a va-
riety that has practically been banned
from Bordeaux for under-achieving
has found a grateful home in dry,
warm Mendoza, a region that is also
almost completely free of vine pests,
mildew, and other maladies present
in Bordeaux terroir. Cabernet Sauvi-
gnon is also doing quite well in many
Mendoza sub-regions, but Malbec
is definitely the star on Mendoza’s
stage.
W
S