As the terroir focus in South American wine continues to sharpen, the spotlight is increasingly being cast on the vineyard, says Amanda Barnes, with certain sites not only becoming known for their distinctive wines but also accruing cult status for themselves.
Until the 1990s, when it came to the wines of South America, brands and winery owners ruled the roost. Then, an era of flying winemakers in Argentina and Chile made the consultant winemaker the sales teams’ marketing pin-up, soon to be overshadowed by the local star winemakers. In recent years, however, the most exciting advances have been through the turbocharged quest to best represent ‘the place’ in the glass – whether that place is a subregion, appellation, single vineyard or even a single block. And as winemakers push beyond the traditional wine regions on the balmy valley floors, single-vineyard wines are becoming thrillingly diverse – from the wind-battered depths of Patagonia, to the lofty heights of the Andes Mountains or the edge of the bracing Pacific Ocean.
Here are eight of the most remarkable examples, all made from relatively new vines and subregions that are leading the pack in South America for unique, terroir-driven wines.
Read the full article in Club Oenologique, November 2021
