The Field Guide
South America
Malbec is not the story here, it is the marketing. Five appellations either side of the Andes and across the River Plate, growing the grapes that were planted first and sold last.
Three countries · five appellations
South America
The history
País arrived with the Spanish in the sixteenth century and was Chile's most planted grape until the 1990s, when it was pulled out for French varieties. Carménère spent a century there misidentified as Merlot.
The land
The Andes do the work: altitude in Salta above 1,700 metres, meltwater irrigation in Mendoza, and on the Chilean side a coastal range and a cold current that keep the valleys from cooking.
Wine styles
Bonarda's soft dark-fruited reds; Torrontés's floral high-altitude whites; Carménère's green-edged Chilean reds; País's pale old-vine reds; and Tannat's grippy Uruguayan blacks.
The underdogs to drink
Start with the grapes worth the detour. More guides land as we publish them.
Find your underdog
Take the two-minute taste quiz and get a starter list matched to what you already love — the lesser-known bottles worth chasing.
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