Argentina’s winemaking industry is evolving fast. With changes happening in the vineyard as well as in the cellar, there is an intrinsic complexity and diversity in the current landscape that refuses to conform to a simple outline. A few years ago the emphasis was mostly on the altitude; now there is more focus on the soils, the history of the place and the plant material. To get an insight into what’s happening in Argentina, I have profiled three winemakers: Alejandro Vigil, Matías Michelini and Sebastián Zuccardi. There are many experimenting and innovating in Argentina, but these three will shed some light on today’s most interesting trends. Alejandro Vigil works for one of the biggest wineries of Argentina while simultaneously carrying out his own personal projects; he is a leading figure among Argentine winemakers and his wines garner high marks in the reference magazines of the US and England. Matías Michelini found the way to develop his own projects and ideas after years working for large and medium-sized companies. Finally, Sebastián Zuccardi carries on the family tradition with his large namesake winery, pushing for innovation and high quality in wine and olive oil.

Alejandro Vigil: Playing Serious Games

Alejandro is an eternally young winemaker; his attitude is like that of a drummer in a rock band, but the kind of drummer who leads the band! He has a great energy—sometimes a little dark, a little punk, but always a man of great conviction. He has the necessary strength to cope with long schedules, travel, and work overload; and the intelligence to adapt to different situations while managing to actually have a little fun…

He got his start in 1996 at the INTA (Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria), four years before graduating from university. At the institute’s Department of Soils and Drainage he conducted a line of research that focused on the physiology of the vine. Studies such as “Vine Physiology and the Use of Water” and “The Study of Malbec in Different Zones” marked the beginning of his career; in 2000, only four years after entering the INTA, he leading his department. A promising future in science lay ahead, but Alejandro was meant for other challenges: in 2002 he received an offer from Catena, one of the biggest Argentine winemaking companies, and left the INTA to embark on a new adventure.

At Catena he had the opportunity to work with other talented winemakers and viticulturists, including José Galante (current Chief Winemaker at Salentein), Alejandro Sejanovich (today Manos Negras, Anko, Tinto Negro) and Bernardo Bossi (current Winemaker at Casarena). In 2004 Alejandro was ascended as Chief Winemaker of Premium Wines (he obtained his first 98+RP in a wine) and in 2007 when José left the winery, a young Alejandro took over the direction of the bodega, working alongside Nicolás and Laura Catena. Alejandro developed a system at Catena that enabled him to cope with a yearly output of millions and millions of liters of wine, without losing focus on any of the winery’s many labels, at any number of price points.

The atmosphere in Catena is like that a great lab or a university. During a recent four-day trip, I was struck by the sight of different groups of people doing research on all sorts of things. Here a couple of ladies were isolating brettanomyces in a vineyard; elsewhere in the vineyard another group were researching light’s impact on cluster development—and how light reflected from the soil impacts rows differently. I found bore-holes in many vineyards, enabling them to study the composition of the soil and the relationship between yields and quality. All results are published for the winery’s internal use.

Catena has been intelligent enough to collect a group of young, talented people that share Alejandro’s energy. (Laura studied medicine and is used to surrounding herself with academics.) She also encouraged the studies of Fernando Buscema, a young researcher and enologist that studied at Davis and is now working at Caro. Alejandro and Laura understood the human factor. This idea that the winemaker is not a simple white-collar worker, with a x-hour workweek, going from the winery to the house, and from his house back to the winery—this was a great change in Argentina. These winemakers are always thinking about wine: they are twitter and facebook, they exchange ideas, they gather together to talk and drink, and they support each other. There is a circle of young and not-so-young winemakers, a community of people that are discussing the future of the whole industry instead of just thinking about their own wines. New winemakers, students, apprentices—all play a very important role in the winery. When I went there I remember that I thought, oh my god, this wines are made by children! One of the girls in charge of barrel storage was 22 or 23 years old, and she was managing thousands of barrels!!

Macro and Micro: While staying at Catena in Vista Flores, I realized what Alejandro was doing. From his example, other young winemakers understood that, no matter the size of the winery (Catena makes many millions of bottles a year), you can produce great wines. So there was this massive, enormous bodega with more than 200 stainless steel tanks of 50 hectoliters, but under the same roof there were thousands of different lots for vinification: micro-vinification in barrel, in bin, in smaller tanks of stainless steel—all with natural yeast, with punchdowns either by hand or with a gentle piston. So we kept trying musts at different points of fermentation, one after another, non-stop from 9 am to 11 pm, from the largest tanks to the smaller containers. He was making wine for a huge company, but creating micro-lots of wine; these tiny cuvees are assembled into larger blends, and from great variation in the components something unique was born.

“I started with micro-vinifications in 1999 at the INTA. At Catena Zapata I started in 2003 and incorporated more and more in 2004. My idea is to create diversity, to make a movie and not just a picture; I believe that the word ‘optimal’ in this subjective world should disappear. In 2003 I started to ferment reds in oak barrels for the Malbec of Altamira, Petit Verdot from Agrelo and Cabernet Franc from Gualtallary. People used to think I was crazy for doing this but today there is not a single winery that doesn’t use barrels to ferment premium reds.”

There is not an “optimal point” for anything, says Alejandro. In 2002 he started to harvest on different dates for the same wine. “The word optimal made me feel uneasy. How is it possible that there can be such thing as ‘an optimal time’ to harvest? Who says this? Which of the two-million variables that are at stake is the most important? Why does somebody come and tell me that if I chew a grape at eight different times, and if at the last time my mouth doesn’t feel dry, that means this is the moment for harvest? And what if I drank ten malt whiskies last night? My palate won’t be the same! So basically I started to harvest at different times because I started to ask myself Why?” In a single vineyard there is a range of harvest dates—a single vineyard may have different soils, patches of calcareous stones, thousands of cuvees, in different containers, temperatures, developments. And they are all blended together in different proportions to make different wines.

Working with Chardonnay, Alejandro had shy beginnings and a little bit of fear: he believes white wines are more transparent than reds, and are bound to show even the smallest mistakes. Chardonnay also shows the soul of the winemaker. In 2004 he began to realize that he could express his ideas about sub-regions, soils, and winemaking through the grape. In Gualtallary, a sub-area in Tupungato, he prefers to work with many different clones, but if pressed prefers clone #76. “It is my favorite, always tight, with great acidity and a small percentage of botrytis. At the beginning the wines are austere but later they clearly show where the grapes come from.”  He sometimes uses hyperoxygenation, depending on the year, the area, and the day. For the Chardonnay from Agrelo he often hyperoxygenates because the clay soils result in grapes full of polyphenols: the aromas are more tropical and the musts benefit from this technique. “In the case of the highest areas I prefer not to oxidize the must; I watch them closely and try to keep their vibrant spirit alive.” He never studied this technique—it was an instinctual decision. Alejandro shrugs, “that’s why the decision to use it depends always on the day and the must itself.”

A dialogue between grapes—co-fermentation. In many wine regions and for many years, mixing grapes in a fermentation was natural product of the environment—field blends—and useful to control style. For instance, white grapes have been co-fermented with red varieties to add sugar but also acidity, lightness, perfume, and volume; to fix color, and for other reasons. “In Mendoza we always co-fermented Malbec—historically it was planted with some Semillon or with the Bordeaux grapes such as the Cabernets, Petit Verdot, etc., so it happened by accident. At home my grandfather used to make a co-fermented wine. But then I developed a whole theory of aromas that led me to co-ferment Malbec with Viognier, and different portions of Malbec with Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Combinations depend on zones and harvest time: the rule is harmony.”

In the last issue of Wine Advocate one of the wines of Aleanna, a winery he co-founded in 2012 with Adrianna Catena with two labels (El Enemigo and El Gran Enemigo), obtained 97 points and merited the issue’s highest score. This wine represents the Argentinean Cabernet Franc: “Cabernet Franc makes me remember Chardonnay in its behavior. It is very flexible, can be molded to fit different styles, and permits me to make very different wines from each region. The grape is sensitive to different types of soils and expositions. Even in a single vineyard I can produce a wine with distinctive characters from different patches of soil. This grape doesn’t allow makeup. Gualtallary is one of the best places for this grape, but Cabernet Franc from Eugenio Bustos, Altamira, Agrelo, and San Juan’s El Pedernal are also incredible.”

I asked him when he realized that Chachingo in Maipú was his home. “It was not so long ago. We were having an asado with my neighbors, our children were playing with the horses and with other children from the neighborhood. Then I realized that they were growing up in Chachingo and that for them Chachingo was home.” Now he is developing his own vineyard in this part of the Maipú department. He would like to produce Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, white Pedro Ximenez, flor-affected wines, and fortified Malbec. Possibly even Viognier. “I want to show the identity of the place, the thoughts, soul and spirit of the relaxed people that live here.”

Matías Michelini: No Limits to Creativity

Matías Michelini was one of the first winemakers that I met personally. He worked as a winemaker for Luigi Bosca, Doña Paula and Finca Sophenia, and now he is involved with multiple brands. He embarked on personal projects like Passionate Wine—his own winery—and SuperUco and Gualta in partnership with his brothers, and friend and colleague Daniel Sammartino. He has made wines in Chile and consulted on projects in Uruguay. Matías is diversity, creativity and dynamism. He makes nearly 70,000 bottles at his winery but equally enjoys making smaller lots of wine—300 bottles here, 2 to 3 barrels there. This has inspired and changed the mind of many other winemakers. In Argentina the prevailing assumption was that the 10,000-bottle mark represented the minimum output for a wine. Matías has introduced another vision for the market, and many of his wines are available in very limited quantities. This possibility of making wine in an “artisanal” way has given dynamism to his work. When he sets foot in a vineyard and sees a cellar it seems he knows by heart what to do or not to do—it is like a dialogue between him, the grapes and the place. Additionally, alongside Hans Vinding Diers and Piero Incisa della Rochetta he is one of the only winemakers of this new revolution that is working in a biodynamic way. He was the first in Argentina to produce world-class Sauvignon Blanc—a foreign journalist said he didn’t want to taste Sauvignon Blanc from Argentina because it was just nonsense, and Matías wanted to prove him wrong!

Sauvignon Blanc in the Andes got its start in 1997. Matías was about to pour a glass of Sauvignon Blanc when a journalist cut him short: “Argentina can´t make good Sauvignon Blanc,” he said. He took this challenge personally and this grape became his obsession. A year after this incident he moved to Doña Paula, where he found there the tools and the space for experimentation. Edgardo del Pópolo, one of the most highly regarded Argentine viticulturists, was also working at Doña Paula at that time. Matías started to use lengthy skin contact around 1999. He realized this was an interesting technique to increase the expression of the aromatic compounds of the grape. He worked with long cold macerations for Sauvignon Blanc—he could hold the unfermented musts for months! The longest pre-fermentation cold maceration was for the Synthesis Sauvignon Blanc 2005: 365 days prior to fermentation. It was also at Doña Paula that he began to experiment with multiple harvests for this grape. They realized that Sauvignon was extremely sensitive to changes in character. The grape starts with pyrazine character, then develops thiols (grapefruit and the more tropical fruit notes) and finally terpenes with more honey and floral aromas. The position of the cluster had an impact, too: clusters with a little more shade had stronger pyrazines—capsicum and bell pepper—while clusters with a little bit more exposition had lime, grapefruit, and even passion fruit aromas. “We may make up to seven harvests, elaborate the lots separately and then make the blend. Always the best wines and the more complex wines result from the blend of all these components and expressions of the same grape.” He also discovered the best areas for Sauvignon: high-altitude vineyards, with a canopy management specifically designed for this grape, sparing it from direct exposure to the sun. Orientation of the rows is undoubtedly an issue in a country where all vineyards, regardless of the grape variety, were planted north-south because of how the water flows!

Brown must?  At Finca Sophenia he realized that the first press of Chardonnay had a tendency to oxidize very easily because of the high amount of polyphenols. So he decided to oxidize the musts completely before starting the alcoholic fermentation. He considers it best to then ferment in oak barrels. He learned this technique simply by doing experiments and thinking about the natural process. “There are things that nobody teaches you, you get to it through the practice and the search for better things.” The owner of Finca Sophenia remembers his surprise at seeing the first completely brown musts, but after fermentation the juices turned deep green.

Orange Torrontés: As Torrontés gained a reputation beyond Argentina’s borders, producers became more aware of the bitterness that wines could have on the finish of the palate. Theories flourished: “We have to cover the clusters and avoid burning the skin,” “skin contact is negative because we extract the phenols and the bitterness,” etc. Some wineries started producing more “international palate Torrontés,” blends with Sauvignon Blanc or other grapes to soften the intensity of terpene-laden Torrontés. While Argentina was reaching a consensus on this style, Matías was heading towards the opposite direction: “I wanted to do the wine that our ancestors made, fermenting Torrontés with the skins, treating this grape as a red one.” His first vintage of Torrontés “Brutal” was in 2011, at a moment when there was a strong niche market in New York for these kind of wines, mostly from Friuli and Slovenia. However, he released it a little bit later, in 2012, and only for domestic market in Argentina.

Concrete world: Today he ferments the Torrontés in concrete eggs with the skins and ages the wines in old barrels, formerly used for a top Chardonnay elsewhere in Argentina. When Matías realized that it was more and more difficult to get the Nomblot eggs, he decided to call the person that builds concrete tanks and he proposed the idea of making eggs. Sebastián Zuccardi was also very enthusiastic about this idea and he bought some as well. The egg-shaped concrete tank suits all the necessities of Matías, and he remains the most enthusiastic about it. The eggs from Nomblot differ from the ones made in Argentina in that these are made in two parts, with a junction in the middle of the egg. From my personal experience of tasting wines from both types of eggs, there is no a big difference.

Gualtallary rider: Most of his projects from Mendoza are based in Uco Valley’s Tupungato, with a serious focus on Gualtallary. Matías has decided to show Tupungato to the country and the world. He has bought land to establish his winery Passionate Wine and he has been planting the vineyards with Malbec, Syrah and Cabernet Franc in gobelet and Sauvignon Blanc in the parral (pergola) system. Since his days at Finca Sophenia Matías has been convinced that this is the best system for keeping all the freshness and aromas of the Sauvignon.

Matías realized that the high country of Gualtallary was his home the first time he saw a dawn and sunset there in 2003.

Sebastián Zuccardi: The Past in the Soils, the Future in the Wines

Years ago no one could have realized the winemaking revolution that was brewing at Familia Zuccardi—not because conditions weren’t right but because was it was so fast and effective. They suddenly transitioned from being a huge family estate with many commercial labels to producer of the finest Malbec, Bonarda, and blends in Argentina. One of the most important things about this family is that they trust in Argentina; they know the economy has its ups and downs, and just as they enjoy the good years they accept the harder ones. They have always sold well domestically—a market the family reinforces with quality, value, and huge advertisement campaigns on the streets of Buenos Aires, focusing mainly on products of the company’s Santa Julia supermarket brand. Now, however, they are also succeeding internationally with their top prestige wines.   

The big change was in giving space to Sebastián to experiment, beginning with Alma 4, a high-end sparkling wine project that he carried out under the Zuccardi umbrella while finishing university. In 2003 or 2004 how he came to my Buenos Aires restaurant to show us red sparkling Bonarda, something totally new and very avant-garde. They started Alma 4 in 1999 when the production of sparkling wines was in hands of a few big houses. “We really turned off the beaten track and started to experiment with styles, aging, setting the vintage and the varietals, and now when I look back I have positive feelings—since then Familia Zuccardi has been producing lots of sparkling wines,” says Sebastián. So at Zuccardi there was a still a big range of everyday wines, but at the same time new things were appearing, including a focus on new varieties under the Innovation label, with grapes likes Aglianico, Verdelho, Caladoc, and Ancelotta.

Sebastián traveled frequently, and could taste wines from all corners of the world. This was key to his work. After university Sebastián worked in Tuscany, Utiel-Requena, Sonoma, Champagne, Bordeaux and Douro Superior. Travelling and visiting wineries has been an important source of education since the beginning of his career. Understand that in Argentina winemakers and sommeliers have very little access to wines of the world because 99% of wines sold are domestic. When I think about winemakers like Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Roberts (Arnot-Roberts) I also think about what they drink, and how much they know about fine wines, vintages, and producers.

When he finished high school he considered studying agronomy or enology, but his passion for the fincas (vineyards) prevailed and he decided to become an agronomist. By the time he finished university in 2004 he was already working in the family winery and purchasing grapes from other farmers. Sebastián remembers those days: “this allowed me to see many different plots, vineyards, regions and situations. In this period I realized that in Uco there was a different energy, so I formally joined the winery and I started to develop our vineyards in Uco… buying more acres. Today Zuccardi owns fincas in Altamira, La Consulta, Vista Flores and San Pablo.”

Since 2009, “we have made a revolution.” In that year Zuccardi created a Research and Development department, and Sebastián proceeded to move forward with a number of winemaking trials and experiments. Co-fermentation is one of the subjects of great interest to the R&D team, with both white and red grapes. “We tried fermenting Malbec with other red grapes and white grapes, even with Torrontés. We found that with co-fermentation the wine gained in verticality and complexity, especially with varieties that have more tannin.” One of the big changes was the work with the whole cluster fermentation. “Today we always ferment with a percentage of whole cluster—sometimes 100%. The stalk gives us a deep freshness in the nose and helps to give more tanninc structure, allowing more complexity and longevity. Our best co-fermentations are currently Malbec with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon with a little of Malbec.”

Sebastián also conducts multiple harvests for a single wine. At the beginning they harvested at different periods, within a very wide range. But better understanding of the vineyard now allows them to fine-tune their job and to concentrate on certain smaller stretches of time. “Now we harvest on the early side, we search for energy and freshness, and we avoid over-ripeness. We are persuaded that over-ripeness doesn’t allow us to express the terroir. Also we are learning that there are certain terroirs that allow us to harvest earlier, like calcareous soils.”

At the experimental winery at Fray Luis Beltran in Maipú there are many different shapes and sizes of concrete tanks. Some are like perfect squares to increase the contact between juice and skins when fermentation occurs. After lengthy R&D research with winemaker Laura Principiano they decided that truncated cones and round tanks without epoxy lining were the most suitable. In Altamira they built a new winery with these tanks. “For us, the concrete without epoxy has changed our way of vinification, due to temperature, micro-oxygenation that occurs naturally, and because of the philosophy of working without synthetic materials. These kinds of shapes allow us to ferment in a space without angles, giving more balance to the wine while fermenting. The change is that the concrete is a noble material, it is natural, and it allows the expression of the wine and enhances the characteristics of the place where the grapes come. Also, we are aging wine in concrete tanks and the wine feels very confortable!”

The place, not just the grape. Along with changes at the cellar, things were moving in the vineyard too. Zuccardi hired Pedro Parra to better comprehend soils and different terroirs and micro-terroirs. One of the highlights at Zuccardi—and this is just the beginning—is the “Aluvional” line. These wines are the most expensive products of the winery; they are made of Malbec, but the idea is that Malbec communicates the soil and the terroir itself. “Aluvional” wines are not labeled with the variety; the intention is to shine the spotlight on the place name: El Peral, La Consulta, Altamira and Vistaflores.

Zuccardi also makes a high-end Bonarda under the “Emma” label and a red called “Tito,” a blend based on Malbec with smaller percentages of Cabernet Sauvignon, Caladoc and a touch of Chardonnay in the 2010 vintage; and Malbec, Cabernet and Ancelotta in the 2011. Sebastián likes how Bonarda has adapted to Mendoza. It arrived a long time ago with many other grapes and, because of natural adaptation to local conditions, it grew from generation to generation and today is the second only to Malbec in number of acres in the country. For Sebastián the Bonarda grape makes very juicy wines—wines that give a lot of pleasure, with a different style than Malbec. “Bonarda has its own personality and history… It will have different characteristics depending on where and how we grow it. I believe that it is an excellent fit to many terroirs from Mendoza but still we have to continue exploring and researching. In our winery we have it planted in vineyards from 620 meters above sea level to 1400 meters!”

Argentina Today

I picked these three winemakers because I think they are of the moment; their histories helped me to understand why Argentina today could so quickly evolve in both viticulture and winemaking processes. They are not the only ones but they are the reflection of the movement that is happening today: there are new varieties coming in, like Grenache, Touriga Nacional, Ancelotta, Savagnin, and Albariño; and there are interesting new wines produced from the poorly regarded Criolla Chica (País). Grapes are being planted in nontraditional regions such as Jujuy, Cordoba and Chubut, new plantations in Mendoza are oriented west-east rather than north-south to avoid extreme sunlight, and vineyards are being trained in systems other than VSP. Harvests are occurring earlier and at different levels of ripeness. Winemakers think about alcohol levels. There is an increase in the use of concrete tanks without epoxy, Argentinean concrete eggs, and anforas and other buried containers. “Hands-off” winemaking is more popular, alongside rational use of oak. 

There are many respected names of an older generation without which this current state of things would have been impossible. Edgardo del Popolo, Susana Balbo, Roberto de la Mota, José Galante, José A. Zuccardi, Alberto Arizu, Jorge Riccitelli, Daniel Pi, Walter Bressia, Angel Mendoza, José L. Mounier, and the consultants Roberto Cipresso,  Michel Rolland, Paul Hobbs, and Pedro Parra created a culture of quality winemaking in Argentina. And many other things are still happening and changing! There are so many regions and varieties to explore. Stay tuned!