Tag: Decanter

Decanter: South America’s winemakers take flight

Winemakers in South America are embarking on a new era – one of quiet self-confidence and curious self-discovery, bringing forth some of the most exciting and individual wines yet.

Distinctive regional personality is at the core of this new movement and it highlights a strong departure from the varietal – and style-driven wines that dominated the South American wine scene in the early 2000s.

As the role and influence of foreign consultants diminishes, there’s a new breed of ‘flying winemakers’ on the ascent – natives who are shaping the wines and industry in South America, and beyond.

Read the full article in Decanter.

October 17, 2023
Decanter: Cabernet Franc Panel Tasting

September 2023 Edition.

Cabernet Franc is undoubtedly a rising star of the Americas. Although still niche, it has been steadily rising in the
ranks and playing a greater role in each of the major wine countries. Its leafy, peppery, fresh, fragrant style can offer the ideal counterpart to the richer styles of heavyweight champion varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Tannat and Merlot.

Read the full article on Decanter.

October 17, 2023
Patagonia: South America’s new frontier. Decanter 2019

Written for Decanter Magazine, October 2019

In the last decade, winemakers in Chile and Argentina have moved beyond what was seen as the final frontier for South American viticulture — into the cool climates and wild terrains of Patagonia.

Growing confidence and expertise; a quest for lower temperatures and greater water availability in the face of climate change; and intrepid adventurism is leading this generation of winemakers further south. The result of these explorations has revealed an exciting new dimension to South American wine: one with freshness, delicacy and acidity at the fore.

Pioneering Patagonian viticulture

The sparsely populated wilderness of Patagonia, at the tail end of the continent, has enraptured voyagers for centuries. When the famed 16th century explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed around these southern archipelagoes, he described it as the land of giants — the land of the patagón.

Patagonia is nothing short of giant: 1 million km²of land surrounded by three oceans. Awe-inspiring landscapes range from hanging glaciers, mountain peaks, dense forests, snowcapped volcanoes, wind-whipped deserts and crystal-clear lakes.

In Argentina, Patagonia begins at the Huincul Fault, or the Neuquén Basin, where the Río Negro runs eastwards, providing fertile lands which have been planted with vines for over a century. No-one, however, dared plant further south where temperatures dropped, winds picked up and conditions grew harsher. The feasible viticultural limit was cut off at 39°S.

What Patagonia did proffer though, was excellent fly fishing. And it was on one such fishing trip, that Mendoza vigneron Bernardo Weinert pondered how the conditions looked remarkably similar to another favourite fishing spot of his, Oregon in the US, where he’d tasted decent local wine before.

In 1991, Bernardo took his winemaker’s son, Roberto de la Motta, on the 1,500km drive south from Mendoza with a truck filled with 800 vines to plant in this virgin terrain. The local agriculture institute laughed Bernardo and Roberto out of the office, and instead they went door to door asking locals to plant vines in their gardens.

“My mission was to trial the vines in different sites, and then buy the grapes from the owners to make wine,” says Bernardo. Within three years the vines had their first fruit and it was enough to convince Weinert to buy land and plant 27 hectares in El Hoyo at 42°S.

He planted cool climate varieties he’d known in Oregon – Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewürztraminer – and also Merlot, “because I love nothing more than Merlot!”

That first vintage of Merlot drinks remarkably well today — resplendent with evolved berry and truffle aromas but retaining acidity and tension more than a decade later. The greatest fruit of that first adventure though is the intellectual seed sown, and the dissemination of vines to families in Chubut who continue making wine with these varieties today.

Valleys of the southern Andes

Small, passion-driven wine projects are leading the expansion of Chubut’s 100 hectare wine region. Most producers are tucked into the Andean foothills — where valleys offer some respite from the wind.

“Frost is a really big challenge, but we are somewhat protected from the wind here,” says Sofia Elena, winemaker at Contra Corriente — another vineyard started by keen anglers, who also have a fishing lodge. “This extreme limit of cool climate viticulture is what gives the wines here a unique profile — I’d never tried anything like it in Argentina before, which is why I came here to make wine.”

This intellectual stimulation and distinctive wine profile is attracting many Argentine winemakers to explore the region and its fresh and filagree wines — a world away from plush Mendoza Malbec…

Read the full article (including Austral Chile) on Decanter.com or in the October edition of Decanter magazine. By Amanda Barnes Decanter South America edition

August 30, 2019
Exploring Montevideo & Canelones in Uruguay

Written for Decanter Magazine, October 2019

Exploring Uruguay and its wine regions feels like you’ve just been let in on one of South America’s best kept secrets. One of the smallest countries on the continent, Uruguay doesn’t have the same bombastic personality as many of its Latin American neighbours but sits as a silent siren for those in the know.

Uruguay’s steadily growing economy and progressive politics have made it a haven of international investment and its sleepy capital city is becoming increasingly cosmopolitan with Uruguay’s wine culture coming to the fore. As word gets out, there’s no better time to discover Montevideo and its wine route.

Uncovering the backstreets and idiosyncrasies of Montevideo

The tortured notes of the ivories being tickled are all the more soul stirring under candlelight. The pianist expertly pulls us through undulating emotions as he pieces together tango songs that were first written on the streets of Montevideo a century ago. Although this tango dinner show at Primuseum is number one on TripAdvisor, the small collection of warmly lit tables huddled around the piano and its pile of crusty old music sheets is satisfyingly intimate and personal. The friendly waiter pours me another glass of rich Tannat as I dig into my steak and wonder why Montevideo never received the same hype for its steak and tango as Buenos Aires.

Tango was, afterall, invented between the ports and streets of both cities, and the steak is every bit as good (if not better, dare I say) in this country where cows outnumber people 3 to 1. But Uruguayans don’t boast about their claim to tango or steak. Nor do they very often confess that they have the longest carnival in the world — their 40 days makes Rio’s six look positively meagre. “We don’t really like to talk about ourselves too much,” a Uruguayan friend tells me the next evening over wine in a hip urban market, Mercado Ferrando. “It just isn’t our style.”

Although no-one will admit it, style seems effortless in Montevideo. The streets are a parade of architecture movements ranging from neoclassical giants like Palacio Salvo and Teatro Solís to belle époque facades and modernist beach houses nonchalantly strung together. Even the airport is garnered in design awards.

“Montevideo has more art-deco architecture than any city other than New York — and yet it’s still off-the-radar as a destination,” British-born Karen Higgs, author of Guru’Guay Guide to Montevideo, tells me over coffee in the Old City where she’s been based since 2000. “The secret delights of Montevideo are not immediately evident, which is what makes their discovery all the more delightful.”

Indeed, Montevideo’s streets can in fact feel eerily quiet during the afternoons and it’s hard to believe that a third of the country lives here. In the world’s most laid back capital city, sipping yerba mate on the 22km seafront promenade constitutes for a significant portion of weekend plans. In the evening however, Montevideo is a hive of cultural happenings — albeit mainly behind closed doors.

The Old City’s historic bars and cafes are a good place to start, and hark back to the golden era of Uruguay’s literati (including many tango composers). Catching a milonga is a quintessential Montevideo experience, but it is perhaps the murga that gives you a deeper insight into the idiosyncrasies of Uruguayan culture. This street performance combining political satire with comedy and song is a pillar of Uruguayan Carnival but performances and rehearsals are held year-round. Another rich cultural expression of Uruguay is candombe — an invigorating dance performed to the beat of many drums which tells the tales of the African slave experience in Uruguay.

The rich cultural fabric of Uruguay is there to be disinterred, and a few days in the capital is just enough to scratch beneath the surface.

The wine route and wineries of Canelones

Although Canelones hosts two third’s of Uruguay’s wine production, 90% of the wineries are family owned and it is often the family who welcome you in — making you privy to their wine heritage within moments. With mainly boutique productions, each family has their own unique stamp on their wines and exploring Canelones provides a wealth of diversity in wine styles and varieties.

Vineyards appear from within the city limits and nearby Canelones became Uruguay’s prime vine growing territory in the 20th century precisely because of its proximity to the thirsty domestic market. The mild Atlantic climate is also conducive to quality grape production with rich clay soils spread across the undulating hillsides which channel refreshing coastal breezes throughout the wine region — essential for this more humid climate…

Read the full article by Amanda Barnes in Decanter Magazine, October 2019 edition. Or online at Decanter.com

August 30, 2019
A Croatian Odyssey: Decanter special
Published in Decanter magazine, July 2019

The diverse regions of Croatia offer plenty for wine tourists to enjoy. Join Amanda Barnes as she tours the Croatian Uplands, Slavonia and Danube in the north of the country, then head to the coast with Anthony Rose as he travels south, from Istria to Dalmatia.

While the coast beckons summer tourists, Zagreb is Croatia’s most visited winter destination. The city is renowned for its markets and winter skiing, but the capital of Croatia is not just for Christmas.

With a compelling disregard for uniformity, Zagreb has a colourful chaos of architecture, ideal to explore by foot. Austro-Hungarian palaces, medieval cottages, bell-bottomed church spires, and brutalist housing blocks all populate different corners of the city, and Zagreb claims to have more museums per square metre than any other city. There’s even a museum dedicated to heartache (www. brokenships.com).

Zagreb’s intellectual nourishment is overflowing but, as a thirsty traveller, I’m using the capital as a gateway to discover the wine lands of continental Croatia. Just 20 minutes from the city vineyards emerge, folded into the foothills of the Croatian Uplands.

Field blends grown in nests of wooden stakes mark the oldest vines, although these native varieties aren’t why Plešivica is known as ‘Croatia’s Champagne’. Instead, it’s the cool-climate Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling vines grown on the limestone-rich hillsides. ‘We’ve only been exploring our potential for traditional-method sparkling wine in the past decade,’ explains fifth-generation producer Velimir Korak, whose sons now run the winery and its restaurant. While a decade is only the blink of an eye for a region that’s been making wine since the Middle Ages, Plešivica is already considered the grand cru of Balkan bubbles. But producers are experimenting beyond the classics with red – and even orange – sparkling wine.

An amphora-aged bubbly doesn’t come as much of a surprise when you meet the innovative face behind it – Tomica Tomac (www.tomac.hr) – who, along with Zdenko Šember (www. sember.hr) is one of Croatia’s leading qvevri producers. Made in traditional clay pots, these structured and yet refreshing wines sit wonderfully with the local speciality, black pig. The thick forests of the Croatian Uplands are a hotspot for game, as well as hiking and skiing.

Although it’s mid-springtime when I visit, the apres-ski mood is in full swing at Petrač winery (www.petrac.hr). It’s here, as lunch rolls into dinner, that I learn my first Croatian colloquialism: putna. This term loosely translates as ‘one for the road’, but in reality it equates to imbibing for hours more. As a platter of roast duck and another bottle appear, I heartily agree to my first putna.

Tucking into Slavonia

Deeper into continental Croatian wine country, and further off the main tourist beat, lies Slavonia, where villages are quaint, folklore is rich and life is simple. The slopes of Slavonia are prime territory for Croatia’s most planted variety, Graševina, and its heartland is in Kutjevo. There’s a plethora of cellar doors to knock on: ranging from ultra-modern Galić to the oldest – and largest – cellar in town, Kutjevo (www. kutjevo.com), founded by Cistercian monks in 1232. The historic cellar offers an excellent opportunity to taste old vintages, from around €50.

As night falls, I head to another cellar – and my bed for the night – Sontacchi, run by brothers Kruno and Anton. ‘Slavonia is hipster now,’ says Kruno sardonically, while serving a barrel sample of his 2018 Superslav, a delicious skin-contact blend of native varieties.

I ask what the trademarks are of being Slav. ‘Well, making your own meat for a start,’ he replies, as Anton comes in with yet another plate of homemade charcuterie. Famed for its hospitality, your glass is never dry in Slavonia and local tradition is rubbing off on me now. ‘Putna?’ I volunteer, and Kruno doesn’t hesitate in taking samples from another Slavonian oak barrel.

Delights of the Danube

In the upper corner of Slavonia lies the Croatian Danube, where picturesque villages overlook the river and Serbian border. The jewel in its crown is the medieval fortress town of Ilok, where more than a dozen wineries take advantage of the river’s microclimate. The largest is Iločki Podrumi, its 15th-century cellar offering another engaging opportunity to taste library vintages, including the local speciality of Traminac. Another local delicacy is paprika fish stew, which I enjoy at the river-beach bar and terrace restaurant of Hotel Dunav. Sitting by the riverside with a glass of wine, my host shares his last Croatian word of wisdom: fjaka – the art of doing nothing.

PDF copies of:
Read the full feature in Decanter magazine, July 2019
July 21, 2019
Decanter Interview: Pablo Morande, Father & Son

Published in Decanter Magazine, July 2019

The name Morandé is synonymous with the Casablanca Valley in Chile, where pioneering winemaker Pablo Morandé has joined forces with his son, Pablo Jr, to recreate, reinvent and rediscover wines from the country’s past. Amanda Barnes interviews them (PDF Pablo Morande Interview).

Pablo Morande is a man with an acute sense of time. ‘I was 20 years too early,’ he explains, thumbing his straw hat as we sit in his Casablanca home under the shade of a cork tree. ‘It’s not always good to be the first.’ We’re talking about how Morandé pioneered Chile’s first coastal vineyard in 1982 – almost a decade before anyone else came to the party. His belief that viticulture could be successful in Casablanca turned out to be right, and it has since become one of the New World’s most respected wine regions.

However, in the early 1980s, Morandé’s visionary attitude wasn’t entirely welcome.

One step ahead

Morandé began his career in the early 1970s, as Chile headed into the Pinochet era, working for Concha y Toro. The winery was producing 500,000 cases of wine a year (a mere fraction of its 33 million today) and needed a white wine to compete with California on the export market. ‘I knew white wines needed a cooler climate, and the coolest that I had was Maipo,’ Morandé laughs about the region renowned for its hearty reds. ‘So I spent two years looking for potential sites.’

He considered the historic, southern wine region of Bío Bío and the virgin coastal territories of San Antonio, Limarí and Casablanca. The latter three zones were strictly cattle territory and had never been imagined for viticulture, nor did any climate data exist. But with the help of a professor at his former university, Morandé plotted out a series of triangles that linked climate data from major cities in the region and made estimations on the climate of the rural land between the pinpointed cities. The two surmised that Casablanca would be mild enough for grape growing.

‘Everyone said it was impossible, that we were too close to the sea and that our triangle was wrong,’ Morandé explains with a glint in his eye – evidently still energised by the challenge…

Read the full interview in Decanter’s July edition.

July 21, 2019
How to order wine like a pro
Decanter, September 2018

Do your research

If you really want to appear like a pro to the rest of the room, do your research beforehand. Most fine dining restaurants have a wine list and menu available online, so scope out potential wines for the meal and identify any dishes that present wine pairing triumphs or hazards ahead of time.

If there’s no wine list available online, begin by thinking about possible cuisine pairings. Is the restaurant known for its oysters and shellfish? Dry sparkling and white wines are a good place to start. Are you heading out for a curry night? Aromatic off-dry whites, such as Riesling and Gewürztraminer, would offer an easy pairing; or for heavier meat curries perhaps a juicy Gamay or a spicy Grenache-Shiraz-Mourvèdre blend. Plan ahead and you’ll save time hesitating at the dinner table.

Don’t fall into the second-cheapest pitfall

It’s the worst cliche on the first date: picking the second cheapest bottle on the list. One of the oldest tricks in the book, this move won’t woo your dinner companion and the restaurateur has most likely already cottoned-on. Restaurants mark their wines up anywhere between 50% and 400% – and many charge a bigger margin on their cheapest, and certainly their second-cheapest wine. You can usually count on an inverse relationship between restaurant price and the margin: the more you pay, the smaller the mark-up ratio.

A smart wine buyer will look at which wines offer greater value within their category. For example if you find a Muscadet Sur Lie for £35, you know you’re likely getting swindled; whereas if you find a Condrieu AOC for £35, chances are you’ve found an absolute steal. Eye up the wine list, assess the price and think about how it compares to its retail value outside the restaurant doors. If this is a special occasion, paying that extra bit more will likely secure you much more quality in the glass.
- Do consider what you are eating – and what everyone else is
- Don’t panic
- Do learn how to talk to a sommelier
Read the other tips on Decanter
September 28, 2018
The ‘Criolla’ wine revival: a taste of South American wine history

The oldest grape varieties in South America have been sidelined for the past hundred years, but a new generation is now reclaiming its lost winemaking heritage as Criolla varieties re-emerge from the shadows. Amanda Barnes has the inside story…

Published in Decanter Magazine, October 2018

When the Spanish first conquered the Americas in the 1500s, they brought the holy trinity of cultivars – olive trees, wheat and grapevines. Whether planted as sticks or seeds, the first grapes to grow were known as the Criolla, or Mission, varieties: a select handful of varieties picked for their highyielding and resilient nature, and destined to conquer the New World.

Of these founding varieties, which included Moscatel, Pedro Ximénez and Torontel, the most important was a red grape commonly known as Listán Prieto in Spain, Mission in the US, País in Chile, Criolla Chica in Argentina and some 45 other synonyms in-between.

The foundations of South America’s wine industry were built on these early Criolla varieties as viticulture spread upwards from Mexico to the US, and southwards to Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and beyond. Crosses spawned South America’s first native grape varieties – including Argentina’s Torrontés – with more than 100 Criolla varieties identified in South America today.

Forgotten patrimony

In the mid-1800s the first French varieties arrived on the continent and plantations of Criolla varieties have been in decline ever since, replaced by international varieties or relegated to bulk wine, juice and table grape production.

According to a study by the University of Santiago, in 1833 the finest Criolla variety, Listán Prieto, accounted for more than 90% of Chile’s and Argentina’s vineyards.

Today it is just 7% and 1% respectively. It, and the other Criolla varieties, have similarly fallen into severe decline across the rest of the Americas.

Incidentally, following phylloxera, Listán Prieto has all but disappeared from its native Spain – with only a dozen hectares surviving in the phylloxera-free haven of the Canaries.

The only remaining stronghold for Listán Prieto is in Chile, where 9,600ha of vines (locally called País) can be found piecemeal in the properties of some 6,000 growers, mostly in the southern regions of Maule, Itata and Bío Bío.

It is here, where grapes are cheap and land plentiful, that replanting didn’t happen to the same extent as in other regions, leaving a treasure trove of old vines.

Most País vines are more than 100 years old (planted before the landslide of French varieties) and some vineyards date back to the late-1500s – a fact that enchanted a new wave of winemakers coming into Chile.

Read the full article at Decanter.com

View the PDF version here:

Criolla: Full Circle

Read more about Criolla wines and varieties on South America Wine Guide

September 17, 2018
Interview: Daniel Pi

Never more comfortable than when breaking the winemaking mould, the Peñaflor veteran is a central figure in the story of Argentina’s wine industry, as Amanda Barnes reveals in this interview with Daniel Pi…

Published in Decanter magazine, October 2018

Overseeing the production of more than 200 million litres of wine each year, Daniel Pi doesn’t have time for much else. ‘I’m lucky I love what I do!’ he says sincerely, and you get the impression that he really does love his job. Pi may be softly spoken but, as director of winemaking for Grupo Peñaflor, he is at the helm of one of the biggest wine producers in the world and has been instrumental in building its success. His own success is down to decades of hard graft and determination – but Pi also has an intrepid spirit that’s taken him beyond the ordinary.

Born into a middle-class family, Pi was the first to attend university, choosing to study architecture. Disillusioned with the creative limits that restrain architects in Mendoza – a region known for its earthquakes – he soon switched to winemaking. Graduating five years later, Pi was ready to start making wine – but the industry wasn’t quite ready for him.‘I finished my degree and was immediately unemployed,’ he recalls sardonically. ‘There was an overproduction crisis. White wines were fashionable and everyone was overcropping, prices were low and the quality wasn’t good. Let’s say it was “complicated”…’

Read the full article and interview with Daniel Pi on Decanter.com

You can view a PDF version here: Interview Daniel Pi.

September 17, 2018
Chile Vintage 2018 Report

Timing of the harvest was back to normal, a relief following the hot and early harvest of 2017, and maturation periods were steady without any extreme events.

‘We had a cold and wet winter,’ De Martino winemaker Eduardo Jordan told Decanter.com, who produces wine around the country.

‘A warm spring brought excellent bud break. The moderate and cool month of March was very positive for accumulating sugars slowly and without losing acidity – key to obtaining balanced wines. The vineyards achieved excellent quality – with good natural acidity, moderate alcohol and good colour. 2018 is a year of finesse!’

Read full article at Decanter

September 12, 2018