Mendoza is by far the largest wine region in Argentina. Located on a high-altitude plateau at the edge of the Andes Mountains, the province is responsible for roughly 70 percent of the country's annual wine production. The French Grape variety Malbec has its New World home in the vineyards of Mendoza, producing red wines of great concentration and intensity.
The province Lies on the western edge of Argentina, across the Andes Mountains from Chile.
While the province is large (it covers a similar area to the state of New York), its viticultural land is clustered mainly in the northern Part, just South of Mendoza City. Here, the regions of Lujan de Cuyo, Maipu and the Uco Valley are home to some of the biggest names in Argentinian wine.
Mendoza's winemaking history is nearly as Old as the colonial history of Argentina itself. The first vines were planted by priests of the Catholic Church's Jesuit order in the mid-16th Century, borrowing agricultural techniques from the Incas and Huarpes, who had occupied the land before them.
Malbec was introduced around this time by a French agronomist, Miguel Aimé Pouget.
In the 1800s, Spanish and Italian immigrants flooded into Mendoza to escape the ravages of the Phylloxera louse that was devastating vineyards in Europe at the time. A boom in wine production came in 1885, when a railway line was completed between Mendoza and the country's capital city, Buenos Aires, providing a cheaper, easier way of sending wines out of the region. For most of the 20th Century, the Argentinean wine industry focused almost entirely on the domestic market, and it is only in the past 25 years that a push toward quality has led to the wines of Mendoza gracing restaurant lists the world over.
The white Chardonnay is a grape variety that originated in France (Burgundy). It produces a variety of grape specially used for wine making. It is rare to find this grape to eat on our tables. This variety of grape is characterized by small bunches, and small grapes. White Chardonnay can be found in many vineyards: South West, Burgundy, Jura, Languedoc & Roussillon, Cognac, Bordeaux, Beaujolais, Savoie & Bugey, Loire Valley, Champagne, Rhone Valley, Armagnac, Lorraine, Alsace, Provence & Corsica.
white wines from the region of Mendoza go well with generally quite well with dishes of pork, rich fish (salmon, tuna etc) or vegetarian such as recipes of chinchards with white wine and grapes, endives with smoked salmon au gratin or quiche lorraine.
This 17 April marks the 12th anniversary of Malbec World Day, a global initiative created by Wines of Argentina to celebrate the success of Argentina’s wine industry. Argentina is the main producing country of Malbec with more than 44,000 hectares planted across the country. Mendoza, Argentina’s most famous wine region, has become synonymous with Malbec and leads local production with 37,754 hectares cultivated (85% of the total vineyards). Now the 12th edition, Malbec World Day cele ...
Inside the August 2022 issue of Decanter Magazine: FEATURES Bordeaux 2021 en primeur First look at a tricky vintage to judge – full insight and 80 top wines to buy, selected by Decanter’s Georgie Hindle Greece Why Olly Smith loves it Sancerre’s best slope? Les Monts Damnés with Andy Howard MW Pétillant naturel: a Decanter guide for beginners By Natalie Earl LEARNING Wine wisdom Expert tips to help you on your journey through wine Read the new issue in full on the Decanter Premium app Unl ...
The grapes have been picked and Argentina is able to file another successful harvest for 2022, to match the previous four years. However producers are reporting that 2022 was the most singular of recent vintages, with each region experiencing its own challenges. Mendoza ‘The 2021-2022 season reminds me of a good Hollywood movie,’ said Martín Kaiser, viticulturist at Doña Paula in Mendoza. ‘It certainly kept us entertained. Our hearts were in our mouths all the way through, but it had a great end ...
