Argentina turns to Malbec and to export

Malbec was introduced to Argentina in the mid-nineteenth century as part of a state agricultural modernisation programme, alongside other French varieties.

Italian and Spanish immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries built a large domestic market for inexpensive wine, and Argentina became one of the world’s largest producers and consumers with almost no export presence.

Domestic consumption fell sharply through the second half of the twentieth century, and a great deal of vineyard was pulled up in the 1980s — including much old Malbec.

The export turn came in the 1990s, driven by foreign investment and by the recognition that Malbec performed far better in Mendoza than in Cahors, its French home, where it is a lesser variety.

The subsequent move has been upward in altitude, into the Uco Valley and beyond, seeking the cooler nights and longer ripening that high-elevation sites provide.

None of this would work without irrigation. Mendoza is effectively desert, and viticulture there depends on snowmelt from the Andes — which makes water availability the industry’s central long-term question.