During the 17 years I’ve been running Poncho Tours with my wife Alicia, one of the things I’ve most enjoyed (besides spending time with the lovely people I meet who come as our guests, of course!) is learning more about wine.
Our regular circuit of the Valles Calchaquies focuses on the ubiquitous Argentina wine varieties of Malbec and Torrontes, but also includes tastings of some of the best Tannats in the world.
While Alicia remains teetotal despite a flirtation with aperol spritz while we were on holiday in Italy last year, I have made it my life’s work to try as many new wines as possible. (Well, it is my job…)
Since we returned to operating our tailor-made tours in November 2021 after the Covid shutdown, guests on our trips into the Quebrada de Humahuaca have been visiting new wineries, of which I have written before in a blog on last year’s wine harvest in Argentina’s northernmost province.
That vendimia was hosted by El Bayeh, with its extraordinary views of the Painter’s Palette at Maimara (they plan to open a hotel next year).
The Mansur family is producing Malbec grown at their Maimara finca, and have more Malbec plants along with Sauvignon Blanc in vineyards at Huacalera, bang on the Tropic of Capricorn: until their hotel opens, you can sample their wines at the family restaurant of Casa Mocha, or in many of the excellent restaurants in Tilcara like La Picadita and El Nuevo Progreso.
They also offer criolla varieties from local producers all around the Quebrada: and this is where it gets interesting.
Another excellent new project in the Quebrada de Humahuaca is Kindgard, where guests on our Jujuy wine tours have enjoyed excellent twinning lunches, with the stunning backdrop of the coloured hills around Purmamarca.
Owners Adolfo y Mercedes Kindgard have planted Malbec, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Garnacha among reds, plus Torrontes, Riesling and Chardonnay whites, but like El Bayeh they also buy criolla grapes from small local producers.
On our San Juan wine tours of the Calingasta valley, five hours drive north east of Mendoza, a new winery which I only visited towards the end of 2024 is Cara Sur, another operation experimenting with criolla grapes.
And in the Valles Calchaquies “Pancho” Lavaque, a fifth generation winemaker, is also on the criolla bandwagon with his Vallisto label.
So what is the criolla grape which is suddenly everywhere? Actually, it’s been around long before Argentina even existed, since colonial times.
As I reported in my blog on Torrontes, criolla means the blend of the indigenous and immigrant: and Argentina’s classic white wine variety is its most famous version.
DNA testing has revealed the famous white Torrontes (produced in La Rioja, Salta, Catamarca, San Juan and Mendoza with slightly different results) is a cross between two varieties that have been in Argentina for more than four centuries: Muscat from Alexandria in Egypt, and a variety called criolla chica.
This last grape arrived with the earliest Spanish colonialists in the 16th century, and was the dominant variety until French varieties like Malbec, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon were introduced in the mid-19th century.
The excellent wine writer Sorrel Moseley-Williams says the criolla chica variety “appeals to a new generation of consumers seeking fresh, lighter wines”.
Other wine experts like Jacobo García Andrade remark on its “delicate color, shy tannins, modest alcohol and, when harvested early or grown at altitude, refreshing natural acidity.”
And now Argentina’s wine authority, the Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura (INV) has announced that criolla chica wines can be labelled as reds instead of rosé, which should massively increase its appeal for producers and exporters.
This comes on top of years of investigation by Argentina’s national agriculture institute (INTA).
INTA’s Jorge Prieto says the criolla ‘family’ still account for 30% of Argentina’s vineyard surface area: a study carried out by his team found 37 different varieties, 18 of which had never been genotyped before, and did not show up in any of the global vine DNA databases.
He is now working with growers in Argentina to develop a stamp or seal to signify wines that have been made from Criolla grapes.
“The stamp would appear on the bottles… and act as a certification that the wine comes from a protected vineyard and a Criolla variety, that the vineyard has been recovered, was endangered or that the winemaker is working to conserve it,” he said.
So when you’re on a wine tour of Argentina, spread your wings beyond the Malbec, Tannat, Cabernet and Torrontes and taste the pre-Hispanic roots!
I will leave the last word on the criollas to Matías Michelini, owner of Passionate Wines in Mendoza’s Uco valley, and enologist to El Bayeh in Maimara, who spoke so eloquently about the Quebrada de Humahuaca wines at last year’s vendimia.
He told Decanter magazine: ‘Rescuing vines so old that they are like trees maintains our heritage and honours our forebears. In these wines you can truly savour the wisdom of the passage of time.’
- For further reading on criolla varities, I recommend this article by Jacobo García Andrade on the website of the wine guru James Suckling.
- And this piece by Alejandro Iglesias on the Wines of Argentina blog (both in English).
