5 South American Wine Varieties You Need to Know

While international classics like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay are widely planted, South American wine varieties tell a much more interesting story.

From historic, dry-farmed vines to grapes reshaped by altitude, climate, and local tradition, these lesser-known varieties deliver distinctive flavors and often better value than their Old World counterparts.

You might already be intimately familiar with Malbec, but others (like País) are only now making a splash outside of the Southern Hemisphere.

Five Essential South American Wine Varieties to Know

Malbec

Clearly, the poll-topper among the most famous South American wine varieties, Malbec, is the continent’s golden child. Thirty years ago, Malbec was a niche variety, largely overlooked outside Argentina and Cahors. Since its boom in Argentina, everyone is drinking the grape again — including the French.

Over-marketed for over a decade as the top twenty-dollar pop (at least for the dark-fruited and oaky drinker), Argentine Malbec is all grown up, and it’s turned out to be no one-hit-wonder. You’ll find a range of Malbec styles shimmying their way into your glass. Here are three to keep your eye on:

Old Vine Malbec: Viñas Viejas

Some might market old vines as 30–40 years, but the really old vine Malbec is well over 100 years old in some cases. Malbec arrived on the continent more than 150 years ago. Early plantings were most likely in Southern Chile near the port city of Concepción. It’s in this area that you’ll find Malbec vines over a century old, making wild, floral Malbec with silky-smooth tannins and fresh acidity (easy-going and more savory than the lush Argentine style we all know well). Wines are often made as field blends with other local old-vine varieties. Besides Southern Chile, there are a few 90+ year-old Malbec vines in Argentina (particularly in Mendoza) that produce exceptionally balanced wines.

• Key regions: Argentina (Maipú, Luján de Cuyo); Chile (Itata, San Rosendo, Maule, Bío Bío)
• Names to look out for: Argentina (Finca Mirador by Achaval Ferrer, Malbec de los Angeles); Chile (Clos de Fous, Tinto de Rulo, De Martino)

Fruity, Everyday Malbec

Argentine Malbec took supermarket shelves by storm for good reason: it can deliver a lush, concentrated wine with real gluggability at an easy price point. It’s effectively Napa Cabernet, but generally at a much better price-to-quality ratio, since farming costs are far lower in Argentina, particularly. You’ll find plenty of solid Malbec wines with plummy dark fruit flavors and a bit of oak-aging structure from the warmer valleys of Argentina and Chile. Expect to spend around $15.

• Key regions: Argentina (Luján de Cuyo, Maipú, San Rafael, Neuquén, San Juan); Chile (Colchagua, Cachapoal)
• Names to look out for: Argentina (Bodega Norton, Santa Julia, Humberto Canale); Chile (Viu Manent, Caliterra)

Top Dollar, Top Uco Malbec

After more than a decade of soil studies and experiments with cement and oak aging, producers now craft world-class Malbecs. These wines focus on elegance, length, and the savory-herbal and violet notes prized in the grape. These sophisticated bottles will be over $75.

• Key regions: Uco Valley (Tupungato, Tunuyán, San Carlos)
• Names to look out for: Zuccardi, Zorzal, Catena Zapata, Monteviejo, Tinto Negro

Carménère

This French variety found a second home in Chile. Today, it is the country’s most widely grown grape. However, Chile adopted Carménère by accident. Growers thought they were planting Merlot. It spread across the country under this borrowed identity until ampelographer Jean Michel Boursiquot confirmed in 1994 that it was the long-lost French variety.

Although a bit difficult to pronounce at first, Carménère is one easy drinker. With its fleshy fruit and attractive herbal spice, it pairs well with many dishes, from BBQ short ribs to corn tamales. Styles range from plummy and opulent with sweeter oak aging, to fresher versions with wild herb and bell pepper notes.

• Key regions: Colchagua (Apalta), Alto Cachapoal, Aconcagua, Maipo
• Names to look out for: Concha y Toro, Montes Alpha, Lapostolle, Montes, Santa Carolina, Errazuriz, Valle Secreto, Viña Ventisquero

País

One of the first grapes to be planted in the Americas, País (Criolla in Argentina, or Mission in the U.S.) was also the most widely planted grape variety in South America until the vinicultural French Revolution a couple of hundred years later.

For centuries, País vines remained largely unrecognized. Winemakers relegated them to cheap table wines and abandoned many vineyards. In the last few years, however, winemakers and viticulturists in Chile have rediscovered this variety and are making some interesting wines from the centenarian vines.

Rustic, Pipeño País

At the heart of the revival of País is a revival of ancestral winemaking techniques, aka natural winemaking. With minimal intervention in the winery (or sometimes in the garage), and often made from organic, dry-harvested old vines, these wines are usually small-production and available from specialist natural wine merchants. Funky, earthy and often surprising, they show rustic fruit flavors and sometimes floral notes.

• Key regions: Itata, Maule, Bío Bío
• Names to look out for: Luis Antoine Luyt, El Huaso de Sauzal, Cacique Maravilla

Modern, Beaujolais-Style País

Modern País wines often use carbonic maceration. This captures fresh fruit flavors and a light, crisp finish. These are perfect quaffers to drink chilled beside the pool. Along the same lines is a dabble into sparkling pink País — a light, fruity, bubbly made in the traditional Champenoise method, offering excellent value for money.

• Key regions: Secano Interior, Itata, Maule, Bío Bío
• Names to look out for: J. Bouchon, Marques de Casa Concha

Bonarda

If País was the most-planted red variety in Chile, Argentina’s equivalent would be Bonarda. Before the Malbec boom, growers planted Bonarda widely, but they downgraded it to table wine and largely abandoned it as it fell out of fashion. But Bonarda is back. By the way, the Bonarda in Argentina is a different grape than the Bonarda from Italy and is also known as Charbono, Corbeau, or Douce Noir.

Traditional Bonarda

Historically pipped as Malbec’s little brother, it was often seen as an alternative to Malbec and was vinified in the same way. More traditional Bonarda wines are jammy and fruit-forward, coming from warmer regions.

• Key regions: San Juan, La Rioja, San Rafael, Rivadavia

Fresh, Flirty Bonarda

Winemakers use shorter maceration periods and some whole-cluster carbonic maceration. The result: lighter, fruitier Bonarda, perfect chilled over lunch. The rise in light sparkling pink wines coming from the variety is also something to cast your eye on.

• Key regions: Luján de Cuyo (the sub-regions of Vistalba and Ugarteche), Tupungato
• Names to look out for: Alto Las Hormigas “Colonia Las Liebres”, Passionate Wines, Matias Riccitelli

Serious Bonarda

In recent years, you’ll find a few new Bonarda plantations popping up on prime vineyard sites in the highlands of the Uco Valley in Argentina, which proves just how seriously winemakers are once again taking the variety. Delving into the potential quality of Bonarda, these wines don’t come cheap, but they don’t taste cheap either. Most producers skip oak and age wines in concrete eggs, resulting in a more linear, dark-fruit-and-floral Bonarda with finesse.

• Key regions: Uco Valley
• Names to look out for: Zorzal “Eggo”, El Enemigo, Zuccardi

Torrontés

One of South America’s few locally developed grape varieties to really woo its drinkers, Torrontés is the Queen of Argentina. With Muscat-like qualities, it is a cross between Criolla (see País above) and Muscat de Alejandra that first appeared in the north of Argentina. Growers now plant all three Torrontés varieties (Sanjuanino, Mendocino, and Riojano) across the country, with Riojano producing the highest quality wines.

The best expressions of Torrontés are found at high altitude, usually in Cafayate (near Salta), although new plantations in the higher parts of the Uco Valley in Mendoza are promising too.

Torrontés is a perfume bomb in the nose. Locally called ‘the liar,’ its floral, fruity, and tropical aromas suggest sweetness—but the wine is bone dry and occasionally a bit bitter. If you want a sweeter finish, try a late-harvest (sweet wine) version. When made well, it’s like the vinous equivalent of a gin and tonic!

• Key regions: Salta (Cafayate), La Rioja, Uco Valley
• Names to look out for: Susana Bablo, Etchart, Piatelli, Colome

From heritage grapes to modern expressions, these South American wine varieties offer some of the most exciting and undervalued wines in the world today.