High-altitude wines is one of the popular trends in the world of wine today. The idea is, above all, that growing at high altitudes provides a cooler climate, which is good in a world with increasingly high temperatures, and that there are often significant temperature differences between night and day, “diurnal” (supposedly good).
Tibet, Peru, China, the Canary Islands… there are several pretenders to “the highest”. Sometimes people talk somewhat unjustifiably about “high altitude”; Chianti/Tuscany, which barely extends up to 500 m above sea level; Savoie, which is easily thought to have high altitude because it is at the foot of the Alps, etc.
The country that can probably claim to have the most high-altitude vineyards is Argentina. Salta in the north, with a spectacular landscape sometimes over 3000 m above sea level, and large parts of Mendoza, e.g. Valle de Uco, at over 1000 m.
When you cross the Andes from Mendoza to Chile, you pass the small town of Uspallata, where you will find Mendoza’s highest winery, Estancia Uspallata, at 2,000 m. The Saud family from Buenos Aires has a ranch of 40,000 hectares, of which 4 ha are vineyards, with pinot noir and malbec.
We drank Estancia Uspallata Malbec 2018 some time ago, and it was excellent with dark berries, full-bodied, good acidity, lots of mouthfeel, a little jammy but still fresh fruit. Worth trying if you can get your hands on it. We bought it in a shop in Mendoza.
However, whether there is any truth to the idea that high-altitude wines are special is up to each individual to decide.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Chile and Argentina with BKWine.
See: See pictures and videos from Chile and Argentina in the latest wine tour’s Facebook group.
