September 2025 - Mendoza, Argentina
September 2025
Mendoza, Argentina
Featuring:
Passionate
(Matias Michelini Wines)
Mendoza is far and away the pre-eminent wine region of both Argentina and South America as a whole. Sitting at 2,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level on the eastern foothills of the Andes mountains, Mendoza is a warm and arid wine region. Malbec has the greatest reputation of Argentine wines, but today a large number of varieties are grown across Mendoza. One of the pioneers of alternative varieties, Matias Michelini, is the feature of this month’s club.
We first covered this country back in April 2023. Because the history and climate hasn’t changed (much) since then, we recycled and touched-up the writeup from that month for two segments below. New information begins with the introduction of Matias and his winemaking project, Passionate.
History
Argentina’s wine culture dates back to the mid 16th century, when it was a province of the Spanish crown. The first plantings were believed to be brought over the Andes from Chile and were planted in Santiago del Estero (north of Mendoza, near Salta) by Jesuit missionaries in 1557. Viticulture quickly spread through western Argentina’s highlands, moving south to Mendoza within just five years. During this time, European settlers largely enslaved the native Huarpe people and forced them into agriculture labor whilst suppressing their language and culture in favor of Spanish language and Catholicism. Many of the notable agricultural achievements of Argentine viticulture actually come directly from the Huarpe’s thousands of years of farming history in the region.
Ampelographers (grapevine scientists), believe that the grape criolla chica was the primary cultivated grape for nearly 300 years. This grape, genetically identical to Chile’s pais and California’s mission, was originally called listán prieto in Spain. It was primarily cultivated for use as sacramental wine. With the colonialization of the ‘New World’, the Catholics brought this grape to the far reaches of the western hemisphere. It is thin skinned, light in body, needs to be harvested early to retain acidity, and has fragile tannins making it perfect for carbonic maceration. While absolutely unrelated to gamay, it undoubtedly shares some of the same characteristics. It is also incredibly hardy and pest/disease resistant, needs very little attention or irrigation, and vines can survive for centuries. Some suspect that vines from original plantings from the 16th-18th century may still exist in long-forgotten plots.
In the mid 1800’s, San Juan’s provincial governor (of the newly independent Argentina) asked a French agronomist to bring over some cuttings of vines he believed would flourish in Argentina’s climate. One of these grapes was malbec, which was an immediate success due to its ability to thrive in the climatic conditions of Argentina’s Mendoza region (more on climate below). This influx of new grapes allowed the fledgling wine industry to boom. Soon railways were being built to transport wine from the mountains to the population centers along the coast. When phylloxera blighted Europe’s vineyards in the 19th century, migrants (many out of work winemakers included) came to Argentina. With them they brought more grapes, knowledge and techniques, and a drive to create a new life. Argentina was economically booming and the wine industry was right behind it, creating massive volumes of wine for consumption of its increasingly affluent population.
Just before the great depression, Argentina was one of the richest nations in the world. However, once the global depression had run its course, the country spiraled into a number of serious socio-economic issues including coups, dictatorships, hyperinflation, and, perhaps most debilitating of all, World Cup losses. For most of the mid-20th century, the Argentine wine industry stopped progressing forward and put most of their energy towards producing cheap ‘vino de mesa’ rather than fine wine. As an industry, the export market had always been practically non-existent due to both geographic location and, more likely, copious local consumption. In fact, Argentines consumed an average of 90 L / person / year in the 1970s. That’s one bottle every 3 days. For comparison, Americans and Brits averaged one bottle every 4 months (3 L / year) around that time. This may be why wine is referred to as the ‘bebida nacional’ of Argentina.
In the 80’s and 90’s, Argentina started to follow neighboring Chile’s lead and aggressively focused on the export market. High-profile American and French winemakers (many of whom made wine in the ‘Parkerized style’) were called upon, bringing viticulture techniques to increase quality and concentration, as well as a penchant for new oak and high alcohol.
Today, the ‘style’ of Argentine wine has little in common with its long history. The gnarled bush vines of criolla chica seem to be all but extinct. Gone are the jugs of rustic ‘vino de mesa’. Even the common man’s wine is grown using the highest technology, sourced from a newly planted monoculture of grapevines, and laden with oak, ripeness, and ‘flavor’.
Climate and Geography
The primary geological and climatic factor in Argentine (and Chilean, Bolivian, or Peruvian) wine is the awe-inspiring Andes Mountains. This mountain range - the longest in the world - runs the entire length of Argentina’s western border. Any wine regions of significance lie in the foothills of the Andes, on the eastern side of the mountains. Due to the inland nature of these regions, they are essentially high-elevation deserts with low rainfall, high sunlight, warm summer days, and cold nights. In Mendoza, temperatures can range from 50F-100F in a 24 hour period over summer, creating high diurnal swings great for preserving acidity and putting the vines to rest at night. With less moisture in the air, there is also less disease pressure (like mildew). Phylloxera, the primary pest for grape vines, is nearly a non-issue in the country. This climate allows a high rate of organic viticulture and relatively stable, secure vintages (without frost, hail, smoke, etc).
One major challenge of viticulture in Argentina is the lack of water. In some regions they only see 10 inches of rain a year. For comparison, Portland sees about 35-40”, and ‘dry’ regions in the US, like Walla Walla and Napa Valley, see 19-25” / year. To combat this lack of rain, viticulturists use trench irrigation, which salvages snowmelt from the Andes and releases it in well-defined trenches throughout the vineyards to saturate the ground. While this may seem like a novel advancement by winemakers, it is actually an ancient method developed by the aforementioned Huarpe peoples.
Passionate
Matias Michelini has been called many things - pioneer, rule breaker, ‘green Michelini’, to name but a few. He is known first as one of the first Argentine winemakers to focus solely on the Uco Valley, the sub-region of Mendoza highest in elevation and colder than the others. His winemaking style has followed this climactic preference - bright, fresh wines made with less extraction, higher acidity, and lower alcohol. In addition to pioneering a lighter, more expressive style of malbec, Matias also works with a handful of other, more obscure grapes. A rare trait in the world of Mendoza winemaking.
The ‘Passionate’ product range consists of a few sub-brands: Del Mono, which are blends of two grapes (syrah/malbec for the red, and sauvignon blanc/semillon for the whites), Via Revolucionaria, which are single variety wines made from more obscure grapes - criolla grande, semillon, bonarda, and torrontes, and Montesco, single vineyard wines showcasing a deep sense of place and terroir within the bottle.
Matias and his team either own and manage the vineyard sites themselves, or source from growers they are close with that allow them to consult on farming. They employ a mix of biodynamics, organic viticulture, and sustainable winemaking practices. In fact, Matias is still considered to be a leader in sustainable viticulture throughout Argentina.
All of the winemaking through the Passionate lineup is low-intervention, light of touch, and a focus on perfectly-farmed grapes delivering the primary characteristics in a wine. For the Via Revolucionaria wines, they take on more modern approaches like stem inclusion (for reds), skin contact (for whites), and heavy use of concrete eggs rather than oak barrels or stainless steel tanks. (Side note - Matias made Argentina’s first Orange Wine with Via Revolucionaria ‘Brutal’ Torrontes 2011.) The Montesco wines come across as more traditional, with reds often being destemmed and aged in neutral oak, but the low-chemical intervention principles and higher acid/lighter extraction profiles still remain the same.
Overall, Matias is and has been blazing a vital train in Mendoza, and South America as a whole. When he started this foray into a different style of winemaking in the early 2000s, he was one of the few brave enough to veer from the well-established path and into the unknown. Today, dozens of Argentine wine estates are crafting wines with less extraction, lighter body, and more elegance. Yet still, Passionate’s expressions remain some of the best.
Montesco, ‘Agua de Roca’ Sauvignon Blanc, Valle de Uco 2023
High-elevation Argentine sauvignon blanc - a category of wine you, like I, probably never knew existed. This vineyard sits at 4750 feet in Valle de Uco’s San Pablo sub-zone. After harvest, it is pressed off and fermented with native yeasts in a combination of stainless steel tanks and concrete eggs (50/50). After fermentation, it is given a short 20 days of lees contact before finishing aging for a year in concrete. 290 cases (~12 barrels, for visualization) are made.
It is very hard to find sauvignon blanc that doesn’t taste like, well… sauvignon blanc. Often the grape variety’s intense grapefruit, gooseberry, and grassy notes tend to overshadow any sense of terroir. This expression, however, leans very little on the grapefruit (though it is there) and instead shows a lovely earthy spice, alongside notes of underripe stone fruit and a marked minerality in the glass. On the palate, the texture brought on by the minerality shines through. It is lightly spicy with a lean palate and high acid that keeps you wanting more.
Agua de Roca translates to ‘rock water’ and that is exactly what this wine showcases - a direct line of sight from your glass to the calcareous soils of the Andean foothills. Drink cold and with or without food.
Via Revolucionaria, La Criolla Grande, Mendoza 2023
Criolla Grande is a unique grape to Argentina. Not to be confused with the historic criolla chica (aka pais, aka mission), this is a light-skinned pink grape that is actually a cross between criolla chica and muscat of alexandria. Often made into a white or rosé wine, this is a red expression of the variety.
Grapes are sourced from the 6 acre Campo Vidal vineyard in Tupungato, the northernmost sub-region of the Uco Valley. The vineyard, sitting at 3,450 feet, was planted in 1972. Grapes are given a 7 day maceration with native yeasts and stems included (whole cluster fermentation). After fermentation, it is pressed off and aged for 5 months in concrete. 450 cases total are made.
The wine is hallmark Passionate, with bright red fruit - cherry, raspberry, and strawberry - in addition to aromas of rose petals and cacao. It is medium bodied, with fresh acidity, and a long finish. The wine is perfect for our late summer weather - give it a light chill and drink it with or without food as you enjoy cooler evenings and the gentle approach of autumn.