From Plonk To Premium: South America’s Great Red Wines

How we selected these four South American wines

Every year the city we live in holds week-long themed wine festivals. This year it was all about the wines of South America. The cherry on the top was an event that celebrated the crème de la crème of South American wineries.

The deal was that each of the 44 participating wineries must bring one and only one of their wines to showcase during this event.

If you have an event like this happening in your city and can afford to go, you absolutely should. For those who can’t, we hope we’ve done our civic duty by spotlighting some of the better South American red wines worthy of your attention. But we did not stop there. We set a lofty goal for ourselves. That goal was to answer two experiential questions:
Which country makes the best red wines in South America?
With so many wineries vying for our attention and showcasing their best, which red wine has reigned supreme?
On that note, let’s get cracking on those reviews.

Zuccardi Valle de Uco, Jose Malbec 2018: the wine and the winery behind it.

Founded by Sebástian Zuccardi in 1963, Zuccardi Winery prides itself on a visionary and innovative spirit. Owned by the third generation of the Zuccardi family, the winery is focused on creating the highest quality wines in the Uco Valley. Their efforts have clearly paid off, as Zuccardi’s wines have scored 100 points with Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. Not just that! Wine Enthusiast magazine named them a New World Winery of the Year in 2023. Quite a feat indeed.

Food pairings that didn’t work well with this wine included lamb and Pomodoro sauce. The wine paired really well with pork dishes and especially pork empanadas.
We were so impressed by this sophisticated wine that we even came up with an appetizer for it. We called it Bruschetta Tango. here is the recipe.

Viña Morandé, Valle del Maule Carmenere Malbec 2019: the wine and the winery behind it.

Founded by Pablo Morandé in 1996, this winery prides itself on being the first winery to plant vines in Chile’s Casablanca Valley. Morandé is said to be the person who introduced Carignan into the records of Chile’s Agriculture and Livestock Services as a varietal suitable for fine wine production. Interestingly, at the event, the winery has chosen to present Caremenere-Malbec blend rather than its Carignan wines.

This is a very food-friendly wine that works well with lamb and beef dishes as well as pork empanadas.

Uko Wines, Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon 2019: the wine and the winery behind it.

Uko Winery is a newish player in the Argentinian wine-making industry. It is an enterprise between two second-generation wine/alcohol-associated families. The winery project started in 2006. However, the Uko trademark was not registered until early 2019. The name Uko is derived from the Uco Valley, a location that delivers some of the most outstanding wines in Argentina and the place where the Uko winery is located.

If you like big, bold and spicy reds, this wine is for you. It certainly hit the spot for us.
This wine will work great with roast beef and beef dishes in general, as well as ragouts such as veal and pork ragout.

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Bodega Garzón, Single Vineyard Tannat 2020: the wine and the winery behind it.

This one is an unusual “beast”, both in terms of the varietal and country of origin. Why? Let’s put it this way, when was the last time you saw Tannat from Uruguay on a wine list in a restaurant? How about the last time you heard your wine pals say they plan to have Tannat with their meal? We are willing to bid you a fiver that the answer is, “hardly ever”, or more likely, “never”. If it’s of any help, we are in the same camp. Tannat was very much a novelty for us. Naturally, we wanted to find out as much as possible about the winery and the people behind it. These are some of our findings.

Bodega Garzón was founded in 2009. Reportedly no expense was spared to build this modern and emblematic winery in the coastal region of Uruguay’s Maldonado.

The no-expense-spared didn’t stop at the winery construction. They hired Alberto Antonini, considered one of the most renowned winemaking consultants in the world, in addition to the full-time oenologist on site. The question is, did all these efforts pay off? Considering the title “2018 New World Winery of the Year” and the Decanter’s 2017 “Best in Show” award as success indicators, the answer is, without a doubt, “yes”.

The Garzón’s founder, 78-year-old Argentinian Alejandro Bulgheroni, owns wineries on 4 continents. One such winery is in Napa Valley, an AVA known for its big Cabernet Sauvignon wines. Undoubtedly, at the Garzón, they are not naive about consumer preferences. For that reason alone, we thought Garzón’s choice to showcase Tannat, rather than a well-recognized in this neck of the woods Cabernet Sauvignon, was both daring and fascinating. The winery prides itself on its un-invasive vinification methods, which include wild fermentation and no over-punching.

We tried this wine with lamb meatballs in Pomodoro sauce, and it was as close to a perfect pairing as they make them.

Which of these South America’s Reds reigned supreme?

The time has come for a drum roll. Four fantastic wines. All are well deserving of wine aficionados’ attention. But which one reigned supreme?

We reluctantly pronounce the 2019 vintage Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon from Uko Wines as our winner. Reluctantly, because all of these four wines showed very well. Very importantly, all of them were exceptionally food friendly.

At the end of the day, the old habits prevailed. Call us simple and unadventurous, but we like our reds in the style of jammy California Cabernet, which is why we picked Uko’s wine.

We also liked that it came at a fraction of the price of California Cabernet, made in a similar classical style. Do we dare to assign a “value” tag to this wine? Well, that depends. Everything good comes at a price. If you are looking for this quality level, chances are you will find value here. If your budget doesn’t exceed the mid-$20 range, highly likely this one is not for you, no matter the label anybody assigns to it.

And finally, the time has come to see if we accomplished our goal and decided which South American country makes the best reds. Again, reluctantly, we confess that we failed to find a clear winner. We expected Argentina to deliver and were not disappointed.

As we prepared to call it a day, Chile counterpunched with, of all things, their Carmenere-Malbec blend. Just as we were ready to concede a two-country tie, we tried the Uruguayan Tannat.

And that was a final blow to our hopes of emerging with an answer to the wine supremacy question.

All of the above was accomplished within the limitations of the wines presented and made available to us during the Wine Festival event

Bottom line

As we fessed up before, we were oblivious to how much South American winemaking has changed since our heydays as university students keen on $9 Argentinian plonk. Back then, if anybody were to ask us what wine they should buy, our unequivocal recommendation would have been to go for South American Merlot. Don’t buy Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec, we would quip, or it will make you feel like your teeth are about to fall out, our very juvenile way of explaining the unbalanced wine with the rough tannins.

Joking aside, we were impressed and surprised by the quality of the reds we tried at the event.

We enjoyed discovering the magic that Chile has pulled off with its Carmenere grape.

We were gobsmacked that Uruguay can make wines and make them well.

Does this mean that from now on, we will abandon our love for California Cabs and Burgundy Pinots? Not likely. But we intend to start paying attention to the wines made by the four wineries we discovered in the event. And maybe so should you.

Related posts:

• Six South American White wines to surprise and amaze you.