GREAT WINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
South America brings robust flavor in their wine, and as one becomes familiar with them the fruity and sweet styles of Napa Valley will just not do, and the old wines of Europe appear to fade away. During extensive travel in South America, and from living in Santiago for two years, we developed our list of favorite wines that we are sharing to the world here. While we have not tried everything, as you can see from the above set image of corks from wines we have tried while in Chile, we gave it a good attempt. Yanira has written several summaries about wine in South America in her book “Upside Down in Chile”, including the following:
“Shortly after that, I had another car accident and my only thought was that I wanted to leave Chile alive. Wine played a huge part of keeping me on track and not to go crazy! Cheers to the Chilean Wine.”
She describes at greater length the context for Chile’s Carmenere, Uruguay’s Tannat, and the Malbecs of Argentina and why living in Chile was a struggle. Here we wish to simply share the main brands that we keep an eye out for imports in the USA, or to pick up select bottles while visiting South America.
Starting with Argentina´s Malbec, there is no question about it, our favorite one is the brand Escorihuela Gascόn….the flavor is incredible and complex. From the very first sip the after taste gives more dimension making one sigh while thinking “this is a great wine!” To date we have not seen this Mendoza’s winery products imported into the USA, but it can occasionally be found in supermarkets in Lima, Peru; otherwise, that is right, you must travel to Mendoza, Argentina to experience this wine. Escorihuela is not industrial, and therefore the taste varies by year, with 2011 being particularly fine, 2014 and 2015 was very solid- we have just tried the 2016 vintage and found it a bit understated as compared to before but it is still solid. Two other go-to Malbecs from Argentina, and more economic, are made by Kaiken in Mendoza and Elementos in Cafayate. The Kaiken brand is imported into the USA, Elementos is not. Finally Malbec by Don Miguel Gascon is alright, and occasionally one can find it in the USA.
Chile arguably has the larger wine exports, and has been producing fine vintages for a long time. Casillero del Diablo by Concha y Toro is the highest volume exported of wines from Chile, and they do an excellent job with producing consistent quality. We have been to their winery twice, and there they offer more highly selected vintages that one can try by the glass or purchase the bottle in their very large gift shop. They produce a wide spectrum of wines, but their best products are definitely their Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon. Carmenere has the “lost wine” story behind it- originally from Europe this grape variety was decimated through disease, but its variety persisted decades in Chile unknown to most of the world. To take the quality up a notch, do seek out the Carmenere by the winery Casa Silva, which recently has been distributed in the USA by Costco. Some of their higher end wines we tried at their Bodega were incredible, but these more select varieties remain only in their vineyard.
Moving on to the unlikely country for wine production, given its overall more humid east coast climate, we have the Tannat variety of grape from Uruguay. We do not have a particular brand to recommend for this wine, but do give it a try wherever you may find it. Though we will say that Peru, Chile, and Argentina have all tried their hand at making Tannat wine but none of them were as good as what we had in Uruguay.
These are the three pillars of South America great wines:
Malbec from Argentina,
Carmenere from Chile,
and Tannat from Uruguay.
Salud!
Cheers!
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ResearchGate: James M. Wise
Author´s page: James M. Wise
Photography page: JamesM.Wise.com
Author´s page: Yanira K. Wise
South America seems to refuse to show its inexhaustible creative force.
