There is an abundance of well-known South American wines that are capable of long ageing.
These include icons such as Almaviva and Nicolás Catena. However, I want to shine a light on some less well-known bottles I’ve found that you may not have heard of, but are certainly wines for the long haul that can still evolve beautifully over time.
I like to call it relic hunting.
Read the full article in Decanter, August 2022
Brought up in a Catholic family in Santiago, Marcelo Retamal knew he wanted to travel from a young age. He’d watched from the sidelines as his uncle, a renowned scientist, travelled worldwide and regaled him with inspiring tales from afar.
His own first taste of travel came in 1992 when the concert of his favourite band, Iron Maiden, was unceremoniously cancelled in Chile. ‘The church and state banned them from entering Chile for their demonic appearance… It was nonsense,” remembers Reta, as he’s known by friends. ‘So my parents got me a bus ticket to see them in Argentina. It was one of the best concerts in my life!’
Read the full article in Decanter, May 2022
One vine of Château Cheval Blanc’s vineyard carries just five or six clusters of grapes. That barely makes one bottle of wine, and – in the case of this esteemed Right Bank estate – about £500 worth of wine, depending on the vintage.
You could say these vines are almost worth their weight in gold… So why then has Cheval Blanc uprooted over 3,000 vines in order to plant humble fruit trees in the vineyard instead?
This tree planting is part of Cheval Blanc’s rather radical agroecology plan, which has been evolving since 2009 in a bid to mitigate the impact of climate change on the estate’s wines.
Read the full article in Decanter, April 2022
Tannat is undeniably the champion of Uruguay. Its hardy character and unbreakable personality performs well vintage after vintage and, as a result, Tannat is Uruguay’s most planted variety – accounting for more than one in four vines. But Tannat is not the only card up this small nation’s sleeve. Uruguay is actually home to a host of different varieties, spanning the vinous alphabet from Arneis to Zinfandel. And the huge range of wines to be found in Uruguay are all part of its heritage, while also being key to its innovative present and future.
Vines came to Uruguay, like the rest of the New World, in the hands of European immigrants, with the greatest influx occurring from the 1850s onwards. ‘We are all children of immigrants – from Italy, Spain and France, and each of them brought over vines on the boat,’ explains fifth- generation vigneron Gabriel Pisano, who makes Sangiovese at Viña Progreso as an ode to his Italian forefathers. ‘We also never had any regulations controlling what you plant.’
Read the full article in Decanter, September 2021
Malbec continues to show why it is Argentina’s champion,’ said Amanda Barnes after this very encouraging panel tasting. Dirceu Vianna Junior MW agreed: ‘It was an excellent tasting that gave us a snapshot of the quality of premium Malbec at present, and illustrates why consumers are so seduced by it – especially those willing to pay a bit more.’
I was also impressed and, as noted by Vianna, it was pleasing to see that premium examples of Malbec are worth splashing out on. This should be welcome news to producers as Malbec remains Argentina’s undisputed star – and on this showing quite rightly so.
The key development for Malbec over the past decade has been the meteoric rise and progression of regional typicity. This was excitingly apparent throughout the tasting. While 15 years ago we talked largely about the Uco Valley and altitude plantings in a relatively generic manner, now the nuances between regions at altitude are clear to see.
Read the full article in Decanter, September 2021
The wine-producing countries of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay are making some seriously exciting wines, so we asked regional expert Amanda Barnes to blind taste a line-up of premium Chardonnays. Quality is higher than ever, she says, with balanced wines in myriad styles waiting to be discovered.
Only in the last decade has South American Chardonnay become something to get excited about. But, as this tasting reaffirmed, it really is worth getting excited about – especially at the premium end, with complex and engaging wines coming from the coast, desert, mountains and even the wind-beaten steppes of Patagonia. This impressive surge in quality is ultimately down to the intellectual journey that South America’s winemakers have been on: from their fastidious research into the multitude of soil types and microclimates (even within the same vineyard) to a much more mature approach to winemaking and an increasingly deft hand when it comes to oak ageing. My standout Chardonnay producers in this tasting all used oak (barrels and foudres) to frame their wines, but none of the wines were overshadowed by oak as they may have been a decade ago. Instead, most of the top wines shone for their fruit purity and elegance.
Read the full article in Decanter, June 2021
Published in Decanter, December 2020
If you’re planning your next great wine holiday, here’s somewhere for your list. Go bold, go big: a week-long tour in the wilds of southern Chile and Argentina will reward adventure seekers and wine lovers alike. Amanda Barnes shares her itinerary for the ultimate road trip through a land of natural wonders and equally adventurous wines.
Patagonia inspires adventure. Spreading 1 million km2 across the southern tip of Chile and Argentina, this wild and untamed land is blissfully remote, with breathtaking landscapes that will enchant the most intrepid explorers. From its hanging glaciers and jaw-dropping mountain spires to its snow-capped volcanoes and cobalt-blue lakes. Patagonia’s remarkable landscapes have captivated the adventurous for hundreds of years.
Read the full article on Decanter.
Read more about the wine regions of Patagonia in the South America Wine Guide
Published in Decanter, October 2020
As the Brazilian wine scene gathers momentum, wine tourism across this huge country is flourishing. Amanda Barnes recommends three fascinatingly diverse regions to explore, with tips on wineries to visit, where to stay and where to eat.
The heartland of Brazilian wine, with almost half of the country’s vineyards, Serra Gaucha rose to its current status after the mass Italian immigration of the late 19th century. At the time, families from all over Europe made their way to the new world with the promise of plenty of land and new opportunities.
Read the full guide, including the wine routes of Santa Catarina and Serra da Mantiqueira at Decanter.
Read more about Brazilian wine in Amanda Barnes’ South America Wine Guide
Published in Decanter June 2020
Producers in this heartland of Argentinian Malbec credit the identity and diversity of their wines to the old vines they nurture. It’s a region where tradition is preserved and protected, even as tastes evolve and new styles emerge, discovers Amanda Barnes.
The headquarters of Malbec and Argentina’s wine industry, Luján de Cuyo may not be garnering the same buzz as emerging wine regions in the Uco valley and Patagonia, but it is very much the heart and mind of Argentina’s wine industry – and it has at its feet some of the oldest vines in the country.
When you pull into Luján de Cuyo, driving 20 minutes south from Mendoza city, an enormous metal sculpture of a Malbec leaf announces that you’ve arrived at the tierra de Malbec. While arguably all of Argentina’s wine regions can claim to be a ‘land of Malbec’, no region has quite as big a stake to this claim as Luján – which has more than 15,500ha under vine, more than half of it Malbec. Luján alone has more Malbec vines than all of France. Claiming almost a fifth of all of Argentina’s Malbec vineyards, it was here in Luján that the story of Argentina’s famed Malbec began.
When Michel Aimé Pouget first planted Malbec in 1853, in what is now a paved-over block in Mendoza city centre, it changed the landscape of Argentinian wine from a sea of Criolla (the ‘founding’ varieties originally brought in by Spanish colonists) to a land of exotic French and European grapes.
Read the full article on Decanter: Lujan de Cuyo profile.
Published in SevenFifty.Daily in January 2020
With Tannat and Albariño as lead stars, the country is making some of the most distinctive wines in South America.
Nestled between Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay is the fourth-largest wine producer in South America—its output in 2018 was 18 million liters. Although the bonds of tango and carnival link it culturally to Argentina and Brazil, respectively, the wine production of Uruguay is unique on the continent.
Shaped by a mild, Atlantic climate, Uruguay is more comparable to European wine regions than its Latin American neighbors, which have continental, Pacific, or subtropical influences.
“Uruguay reminds me more of Portugal—a small place with a maritime climate on the Atlantic Ocean, with variable weather,” says Hans Vinding Diers, who is a consultant winemaker at Bodega Oceánica José Ignacio in Maldonado, and has made wine on four continents. “You can also compare Uruguay to Bordeaux, as it has the same Atlantic influence.”
This Old World climate in the New World is part of the reason buyers are getting excited about Uruguayan wine; there’s also the thrill of discovering something new. “What we love about Uruguayan wine is its potential to become a major player in the South America wine map,” says Julio Robledo, a co-owner of Grand Cata, a wine store in Washington, D.C., that specializes in Latin American producers. “There is still much to see and discover from Uruguay, and diversity is the key. Many of our customers have a certain idea about Uruguay and Tannat, but when they taste a new bottle or a new grape from Uruguay, they definitely feel surprised by the quality.”
Read the full article online at SevenFifty.Daily
Read more of Amanda Barnes articles on Uruguay at South America Wine Guide