Travel Series: South America
As the name implies, a reason we began ‘Wandering Vine’ was to bring people the opportunity to explore through food and drink. To sample a little piece of the World - no passport required. Now we invite you to go with us now as we retrace our travels through these stories.
The next stop on our World Tour is South America. During my Agricultural Research career, I had the good fortune to take many, many trips through Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. Brazil is unique among the nations of South America. As a result of the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, when Spain and Portugal divided South America between them, Brazil became the colony of Portugal, while all the rest of South America became the territory of Spain.
Brazil is a large, diverse and beautiful country, but one thing it is not is a ‘wine culture’. Largely tropical – so not well suited for wine grape production – even in the Southern parts of the country vineyards are relatively scarce. While Brazil is more than twice the size of Argentina and Chile combined, it produces just over 1% of the world’s wine, while Argentina and Chile each produce about 5%. Since I focus these stories on our wine travels, we will leave Brazil behind now, and head Southwest.
The cultural differences of Argentina and Chile from Brazil trace back to the period of European conquest. While the colonization of Brazil was funded by private investors, the Spanish Conquistadores were funded by the Spanish crown, and they sought adventure and conquest. The Jesuit priests went with them to convert the local indigenous people. To celebrate the sacraments, the priests needed wine. So, they planted vineyards wherever they went – and so began the wine culture in South America in the same way it did in North America. By the middle of the 1500’s vineyards had been established in current day Peru, Chile and Argentina.
Argentina and Chile have extraordinary diversity in natural environment. They share the Andes Mountain range and Patagonia, the southern region of unspoiled natural beauty, which ends in the Tierra del Fuego, or Land of Fire, with active volcanoes. At the southern tip, which is home to several penguin species, you will reach the Drake Passageway – just a few hundred miles of ocean separating South America from Antarctica.
Aside from sharing a wine culture, the Andes and Patagonia, these two countries are about as distinct from each other as two neighbors can be. Let’s start with our favorite topic – food and wine.
The cuisine of Argentina is all about grilled beef, in all forms. An Argentine parillada, or bar-be-que, features a diversity of meats grilled on the parilla, or Argentine grill. I especially like the simple pleasure of choripan – a grilled sausage (chorizo) in bread (pan). Complementing this beef-centric cuisine are wonderful pastas tracing to a large population descended from Italian immigrants, and the ubiquitous dolce de leche – which is caramel – incorporated into a wide variety of desserts.
The cuisine of Chile couldn’t be more different from this. It is fresh fish and seafood from the Andes streams and Pacific Ocean, and the freshest fruits and vegetables which dominate the local agriculture. While the Peruvians and Chileans argue about which invented ceviche, it is certainly a quintessential Chilean dish. Fresh fish and lime juice with onion, herbs and salt. Fresh, simple, and marvelous.
When it comes to wine, there is much more similarity between the two countries. The valleys of the rivers coming from the Andes are nearly perfect for growing vegetables, fruits and especially wine grapes, with warm, sunny days that have morning dampness, dry afternoons, and cool nights. While wine became integrated into the local cuisines in the 1500s, it wasn’t until the second half of the 1800s that the focus began to evolve from quantity to quality, and the industry shifted to planting Bordeaux vinifera vines. This was exceptionally fortuitous as the phylloxera crisis in the late 1800s destroyed over 70% of wine production in Western Europe, and the wineries of Argentina and Chile were in position to supply the market with wines familiar to the European palette. These Bordeaux varieties have dominated the wine production of both countries ever since.
When we think of Argentina wine, we think malbec. Malbec and malbec blends comprise roughly 40% of Argentine wine production, making Argentina the world’s largest producer of this French Bordeaux variety. As you would expect from Argentine cuisine, malbecs are a reliable pairing for grilled meats. These wines are usually excellent value – like the Piattelli Reserve Malbec we offer at Wandering Vine. With exceptional care and attention to detail, Argentine malbecs can be extraordinary. Catena Zapata was named world ‘vineyard of the year’ in 2023, and their Argentino is truly one of the world’s great red wines.
There are also some wonderful Argentine wines beyond malbec. Argentina produces some of the best value cabernet sauvignon in the world. Torrontés is the most unique Argentine offering. A grape which originated in Argentina, it produces a smooth and balanced white wine with subtle peach aromas.
Chilean wine is dominated by the ‘children’ of cabernet franc. Something that many wine drinkers aren’t familiar with is, cabernet sauvignon and merlot – two of the most widely produced varieties in Chile - are siblings, descended from different crosses with cabernet franc. There is a third, lesser-known sibling, which is carménère. Originally from Bordeaux, carménère is now almost unique to Chile. Of the siblings, carménère wines are closest to the parental cabernet franc – less tannin and more acid than cabernet sauvignon, usually with the characteristic green pepper aroma. Try Los Vascos Cromas Gran Reserva Carménère on your next visit to the Castle.
Beyond outstanding wine and cuisine, Argentina and Chile are among our favorite travel destinations. Both are welcoming and relatively easy to navigate, with much to see and do. For Carla, the main attraction for a visit to Argentina is spending time in the capital, Buenos Aires. With the population of the BA metropolitan area exceeding sixteen million, it has all the cultural attractions you would expect from a cosmopolitan center – great restaurants, museums, theater and opera. But the attraction for Carla is the shopping. Especially known for leather goods and fashion, the real attraction is you can bargain for deals in the large areas of pedestrian shopping streets, the most famous and popular of which is the area around Florida Street.
In the Northwest of Argentina, in the provinces of Jujuy and Salta, you will find high dessert similar to the US Southwest. In the province of Misiones in the Northeast is sub-tropical forest. Here is one of our favorite destinations - the Iguazu Falls. Located at the junction of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, the falls are the world’s largest waterfall complex, with 275 different vertical drops. The view is mesmerizing.
Central Argentina is the Pampas. Comprising 460,000 square miles of fertile natural grasslands, this is one of the world’s greatest agricultural areas. It is also the home of the famous Argentine Gauchos – the legendary cowboys of South America – and the world-renowned beef from the cattle they raise.
Moving West to the Andes we find quaint mountain towns, the best known of which is Bariloche. German immigrants settled here in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s building a town that looks straight out of the Swiss Alps. And of course, most important for our topic, at the foothills of the Andes is Mendoza, the best-known wine region of South America. Wine tourism in Mendoza rivals anyplace in the world, with the traditional wineries of Luján de Cuyo and Maípo valleys and the stunning modern facilities of the Uco Valley. But Mendoza is no longer a hidden gem, so if you plan to visit, schedule your wine tastings and tours a few weeks in advance. Or head North to Salta and experience the ‘new territory’ of Argentina wine production around Cafayate, where you will find some of the world’s most luxurious wine resorts, like Piattelli Vineyards stunning new location.
Chile is a very long and narrow strip of land between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean, and as you would expect has an abundance of mountain vistas and beautiful beaches, where you can experience some of the most stunning sunsets anywhere in the world. Being in the rain shadow of the massive Andes, it has a very dry climate. In the Atacama desert at the Northen end of Chile is the driest place on earth – where rainfall has never been recorded. It looks like a photo from the moon – just rock and dust.
One of our favorite ways to explore local culture is taking a cooking class in the places we visit. Santiago, the capital of Chile, is also a large metropolitan area with a population of nearly seven million. There we had a wonderful time at the Uncorked Cooking Workshop, visiting the local fish and produce markets to procure our ingredients, and then preparing a dinner of traditional Chilean favorites.
There are many wine producing valleys throughout Chile, but the best established are near Santiago. The Maipo and Colchagua Valleys are home to the largest producers, primarily producing carménère, cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc. The lesser-known Casablanca Valley is known for producing excellent pinot noir. All of these are great destinations for wine touring, with beautiful wineries which have excellent restaurants, many of which have boutique hotels.
We encourage you to come by the castle and become familiar with the wines of South America, as you plan your dream travel to these beautiful and inviting destinations.
