Discover our guide to San Juan’s wine region of Barreal in Calingasta Valley through the vision and wines of its leading producer, Cara Sur

A true oasis in the desert, Barreal is in the proverbial middle of nowhere. Three hours from the city of Mendoza and three from the city of San Juan, it is in the Calingasta Valley — one of Argentina’s most isolated wine regions only accessible by a dirt road. That isolation brings challenges, but it also means that Barreal and its heroic viticulture has been preserved in time. Barreal offers wines that are unique in their mountain identity and Criolla ancestry.

The wine region of Barreal: A land of sun, wind, vines & mud

If you look at Calingasta Valley from above, it is a solitary snake of green in the middle of a desert landscape. This narrow oasis hugs the Los Patos River running 40 km between the towns of Barreal and Calingasta with a green corridor of vines, garlic plantations, potato fields and apple orchards. The villages are a chaos of green and terracotta: lush green plantations planted between mud roads and terracotta-coloured houses constructed of adobe mud bricks.