Argentina: Fresh perspectives
Rich, ripe and inky black with structure and power – that’s how most would describe a typical Argentine Malbec – and they would be right.
There’s no denying Argentina’s prowess at producing robust, ripe Malbec, high in alcohol with silky tannins and trademark notes of black cherry, pepper and sweet spice, often with a good showing of oak. Argentina has built its reputation on this ‘traditional’, some might say old-school, style of Malbec, which still represents many of the country’s top drops. But another side to Argentina’s winemaking story is emerging, with a fresh generation of winemakers ushering in a new wave of Argentine Malbec – a wave that has been breaking for several years. Today, if you were to taste a line-up of 30 Argentine Malbecs blind, an increasing proportion could realistically be mistaken for cool-climate Syrah or even a jammy Pinot. Through earlier picking, less extraction and less heavy-handed use of oak, Argentina is producing a style of Malbec more reminiscent of wines from cool-climate regions – wines that are lower in alcohol and higher in acidity, which seek to preserve the individual characteristics of their terroir.
“From a volume-driven wine industry in the 1970s and 1980s, Argentina moved to a quality, market-oriented industry and the world welcomed expressive, voluptuous Malbecs that were full of plump, red-fruit aromas, with good concentration and firm, round tannins and vanilla flavours from oak ageing,” explains Ramiro Barrios, managing director of Clos de los Siete in the Uco Valley, Mendoza. “But in recent years, Argentine winemakers are moving towards terroir-focused winemaking, looking for new places to grow vines and wines that express the uniqueness of these places. This is how a new style of fresher and lighter Malbec is coming from vineyards planted at higher altitudes. It’s a quest to enrich the diversity of Malbec, coming from different terroirs.”
BIG AND BOLD
From a winemakers’ perspective, the emergence of such styles has sought to complement, rather than replace more traditional styles, which remain a vital part of Argentina’s commercial offer. But while this shift, or branching out of style, is well known among the trade, it’s less acknowledged among consumers, who still tend to hold the former as a barometer of Argentine quality and style.
As Madeleine Stenwreth MW notes: “Too many people still expect Malbec to be the big and bold ‘macho-wine’, resulting in overripe fruit and loads of oak, especially at a hefty price tag.” But given that it was the velvety-soft charms of Argentine Malbec that helped draw the legions of consumers in, are winemakers taking the risk of going too far, too fast, in the opposite direction, alienating their loyal fans? Or is diversification the key to preventing Malbec from becoming a commodity? More importantly, are consumers ready for a change?
Growing demand for cool-climate wines would suggest that they are. Last year, UK drinks distributor Matthew Clark reported an uplift in sales of premium wines from cool-climate regions – a sign that consumers are increasingly seeking out lighter, fresher styles, it said.
Wines from cooler climates including Austria, New Zealand, and Germany’s Mosel, generated double or triple-digit volume sales growth for the distributor in the year to 30 June 2016 (MAT), with sales of Central Otago Pinot Noir recording growth of 196% over the past 12 months. Indicative of a wider trend, this growth was attributed to consumer drinking preferences shifting away from heavier styles and embracing elegant wines with refreshing acidity and lower alcohol.
So it’s no surprise that Argentine winemakers should be seeking to produce wines more characteristic of cooler climates, using altitude to their advantage. The rise of the Uco Valley in Mendoza, and sub-appellations of Guatallery and Altamira, is proof of this, with the region now home to some of the most expensive plots of land in all of Mendoza.
It is no coincidence that the Uco is also home to Mendoza’s highest-altitude vineyards. Other regions that have altitude on their side include Vista Flores, in the Uco Valley, and Perdriel in Lujan de Cuyo, both in Mendoza. Further north, winemakers in the high-altitude regions of Cafayate, including Colomé, in Salta are moving in a similar direction, albeit more typically with white grape varieties.
Stenwreth, who wrote her Masters of Wine dissertation on the effect of altitude on Malbec in Mendoza in 2007, has seen how winemakers have adapted to this trend in a relatively short time, driven by a number of factors, including the declining influence of wine critic Robert Parker, drawing parallels to the evolution of Australian Shiraz.
“Parker was talking about soft tannins and mouthfeel and silky texture and getting that lusciousness on the palate, but that meant you also lack the vibrancy and freshness and elegance that a lot of people are looking for,” she says.
“The style is changing all over the world. You see it in Shiraz in Australia. You could tell that they waited a long time to pick grapes, almost to the point of where they are becoming dehydrated. You lose that energetic quality. That style has changed – they have gone towards more freshness and perfume and red fruit. Malbec is going through the same thing.”
Beyond Mendoza, Patagonia in the south has a natural capability to produce wines more similar in style to cool-climate regions, and is positioning itself to become a premium producer of Argentine wine, albeit with significantly smaller volumes than Mendoza. Split into the three sub-regions of Rio Negro, Neuquén and La Pampa, Patagonia stands at 1,200ft, has a dry and arid climate and is protected by a natural barrier of surrounding desert. Merlot and Cabernet Franc are common, but Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah also thrive here. In the past decade, investment in all three regions has rocketed, with consultants Michel Rolland and Paul Hobbs both working with wineries in the region.
“The tendency of lighter, more elegant, fresher styles is a great opportunity for Patagonia because these are the kind of wines that are naturally achieved in our terroir without much oenological intervention,” says Maria Loson, managing director of Bodega del Desierto in La Pampa.
“Thanks to the privileged characteristics of the climate (very cool nights, marked winters and plenty of light) the grapes grown here have two typical characteristics: good natural acidity and lots of minerality. These factors give our Malbec a profile that is naturally very well balanced between alcohol and acidity, between power and finesse, between fruit and mineral notes.”
Consumer tastes aside, which are always subject to fashion, the most defining factor influencing Argentine winemakers’ direction in style has been the country’s continued and collective exploration of terroir. Improved understanding of the unique traits imparted by specific soils has resulted in a greater desire to preserve and highlight a sense of place, which typically calls for the production of less ripe, less extracted wines so not to mask such characteristics.
“In Mendoza we’re seeing this shift toward freshness and much less oak, because they don’t need to cover up the flaws anymore,” says Stenwreth. “They can express themselves and be a little more naked when the wines have been less extracted – there’s less make-up. It’s a lovely way to allow terroir to shine, but you can’t hide anything so you need to have better vineyard management and healthy soils, and that’s hard work.”
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For Phil Crozier, wine director at London’s Gaucho chain of restaurants, the trend among winemakers has been to move away from “over-ripeness” and towards picking earlier.
HARSH TANNINS
“For many years there was a fear that if you picked grapes early then the tannins would be a little harsh,” says Crozier. “But now there are winemakers that are pushing this hard and finding that it’s not the case. It means we are getting lower alcohol, but I don’t know if that’s the primary reason. Wines are more aromatic, with higher acidity and more freshness, and you also get much more of the terroir. With over-ripeness, for me, the grape could be pretty much from anywhere. We have to get across to people other regions in Argentina and their flavour profiles. I don’t think Malbec can continue to be successful as a generic variety. There has to be an offering of wines from certain places – that’s the way forward.”
Getting consumers to the point of requesting an Uco Valley, or even Altamira, Malbec, might be the aim, but the fact remains that many consumers still automatically expect to get a ripe “old-school” style when ordering Argentine Malbec, says Crozier. The challenge is communicating that difference, be it resulting from altitude, terroir or earlier picking, to the consumer.
“I have a policy where if someone doesn’t like a wine they don’t pay for it. But I do say to the staff when you are selling these wines you need to state where they are from, that the grapes are picked earlier and at higher altitudes, and are not necessarily Malbec as you know it,” he says. “That’s a way of getting around it. It’s more difficult to make these kinds of wines in places like Maipú. I think you get the true expression of the grapes by picking that little bit earlier.”
To demonstrate this shift in style to consumers Crozier lists two wines side by side at Gaucho; Khalix ‘17 Marzo’ 2013 and Khallix ‘14 Abril’ 2013. Made at the same vineyard in Altamira in the Uco, the only difference between them is the time at which their grapes were picked – a month apart.
“You can talk about soils and ripeness and altitude, but they have to taste it to understand it, and I think customers really enjoy that education,” says Crozier.
One notable characteristic that comes with the production of less ripe wines, and is therefore more common among ‘new wave’ styles of Malbec, is “greenness”, says Stenwreth. This grassy, herbal, bell-pepper note can add vibrancy to a wine, and is more common in wines produced at higher altitude vineyards such as Altamira and Gualtallary. But it’s not a typical characteristic of Argentine Malbec, and therefore presents a potential barrier to communicating quality, notes Stenwreth, particularly in the US market, which en masse has a negative perception of ‘green Cabernet’, making anything described as “herbal” more risky.
SENSE OF PLACE
“Green character in wine is such a controversial issue among tasters, judges and critics, and should be much more openly discussed; just like minerality, which has caused so much debate,” says Stenwreth. “It is especially important today when wines are picked earlier with the aim of expressing freshness, honesty and more sense of place than ever before. Many markets discard wines based upon being ‘green’ when it is actually a change in style taking place, which has not been communicated widely enough and therefore not yet fully understood by everyone as being a positive and interesting development.”
All of this change and evolution in style is emerging at a time when competition from other wine-producing regions for Argentina’s Malbec mantle is rising. While Argentina has the jump on quality and recognition, it would be unwise for producers to assume their connection to Malbec is unbreakable. Chile is the obvious contender, whose Malbec is starting to present serious competition to Argentina for the first time. At the same time, Argentina is raising its game with Cabernet Sauvignon.
“Chileans are taking the opportunity to work hard on their Malbec, just when some Argentine producers are slowing down and possibly taking their success for granted,” says Stenwreth. “Similarly, Argentina is now starting to seriously give the Chileans a run for their money when it comes to Cabernet Sauvignon, with Chile for too long depending on its past achievements. While you are busy admiring your own success the competition has watched and learned and is eager to take over.”
Looking ahead, the 2016 vintage could prove a game changer for the evolution of Argentine Malbec. While winemakers have been pursuing more restrained styles of Malbec for some time, the 2016 vintage dramatically increased their ability, and perhaps willingness, to do so. Not only was it significantly smaller, with grape volumes dropping by 25%, but it was characterized by El Niño – the abnormal climate pattern caused by the warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, which affects sprouting, flowering and subsequently the fruit set of bunches. A colder than normal spring, plentiful rainfall and cloudy days toward the end of the summer resulted in delayed maturity and bud break, and wines with less alcohol and higher acidity. As Daniel Pi, winemaker at Trapiche surmises: “We obtained wines that were somewhat different; fruitier and less heavy, sweeter with good acidity and freshness, which makes them easy to drink – they also had very good colour and concentration.”
For those pursuing a fresher, lighter style it was a blessing, of sorts, playing into the momentum of an already growing trend, and may just have convinced a few naysayers in the process, suggests Stenwreth.
“The style of wine produced in 2016 is going to change attitudes because everyone had to make this style of wine,” she says. “Those who wanted to make big, chunky wines couldn’t do so. They had to accept the vintage effect and found that, actually, it turned out OK, and that they could look into this style in the future, even if the vintage is different in the coming years. It’s forcing a change.”
While winemakers can’t count on the helping hand of El Niño every year, should the 2016 vintage be a success, it could serve to quicken the pace of winemakers’ moves toward fresher, lighter styles, regardless of intermittent weather patterns. Conversely, it could further deepen a two-pronged approach to Malbec, diversifying Argentina’s offer.
Either way, it’s an exciting time in Argentina’s winemaking journey, with the 2016 vintage potentially being a fork in the road.
