The GIs of Argentina: Argentina’s modern appellation system

What are the wine appellations of Argentina? It’s a question with an evolving answer, but the most modern system for Argentina’s appellations is the system of Indicaciones Geográficas (Geographical Indications, or GIs in English) which has been emerging in the last two decades. Here’s a rundown of Argentina’s wine appellations and a list of the GIs in Argentina.

Climate has always been a major concern of growers in Argentina. Ever since the first Jesuit monasteries and vineyards of the 16th and 17th centuries, there has been an acknowledgement of certain regions as having superior climate and water supply than others for vine growing. Even today, some local names for certain regions can be traced back hundreds of years. The formality of identifying certain wine regions is, however, a very modern phenomenon.

In the late 80s, a law was established to allow producers to apply for denominations of origin for wine production in Argentina. These denominations would be controlled and approved by the National Viticulture Institute (INV), but instigated by wine producers. Possible denominations could be a DOC (Denomination of Controlled Origin), which specified a geographical limit and production methods (similar to a French appellation); a GI (Geographical Indication), which verified the origin of the grapes; or an IPO (Indication of Provenance), a wider regional designation for table wines.

The 1999 Law by INV created:

DOC (Denomination of Controlled Origin)

which specifies a geographical limit and production methods (similar to a French appellation per se);

GI (Geographical Indication, or Indicacion Geografico IG in Spanish)

which verifies the origin of the grapes from a delimited region — can be a province, municipality (departamento), district (distrito), or non-political zone;

or an

IPO (Indication of Provenance)

a wider regional designation for table wines (80% min. from the stated origin).

To get the ball rolling, the INV created GIs for every province in Argentina (eg. Mendoza GI or San Juan GI) and every department within those provinces (eg. Maipú GI or Zonda GI). Some of these departments are rather large — for example, the department of San Rafael and its GI covers a territory of over 31,000 hectares.

From therein, it has been up to producers to step forward with proposed GIs or DOCs. In over 30 years, only two DOCs have been presented and approved: that of Luján de Cuyo DOC in 1989 and San Rafael DOC in 2007. Similarly to an appellation in the Old World, the DOCs outlined which producers could participate, certain requirements for production (including yield and varieties), a regional boundary and wines have to be approved for typicity by a tasting panel.

In the case of Luján de Cuyo DOC, the wines have to be predominantly Malbec and sourced from vineyards in the traditional Luján de Cuyo wine regions between 825 and 1080 m.a.s.l. and aged for a minimum of 24 months before release (including 12 months in oak barrel). Despite what seems like a rather classic recipe for Mendoza Malbec, there are only a couple wineries (notably Luigi Bosca, Nieto Senetiner, Lagarde and Norton) who use the DOC to sell their wines. San Rafael DOC is also only used by six wineries in the region.

While the uptake of the DOC system has stalled and fallen into insignificance, the GI system is seeing a revived interest — especially in regions where wine producers are beginning to note substantial character difference between sub-regions and districts. There are a handful of GIs which have been proposed and approved in the last decade, ranging from the proposed Trevelin GI in Chubut to the approved Quebrada de Humahuaca GI in Jujuy. In Mendoza, district GIs include Agrelo GI and Las Compuertas GI (within the Luján de Cuyo GI); Las Barrancas GI and Lunlunta GI (within the Maipú GI); and Vista Flores GI, Los Chacayes GI and San Pablo GI in the Uco Valley. All of these GIs are political districts, and in order to get approval, producers had to prove there was qualitative differentiation of the wines from that district versus another.

The most interesting GIs of all though, have been Paraje Altamira GI (first approved in 2013), San Pablo GI (approvd in 2019) and Pampa El Cepillo GI (approved in 2019). Reason being, they aren’t political regions at all but rather the first appellations that have been outlined due to their geographical, geological and climate characteristics.

It is no coincidence that the first GI to come into the arena was that of Altamira. Altamira is a well-established wine region within the Uco Valley that became renowned during the early 2000s for producing red wines, particularly Malbec, of excellent quality. A couple of cult classics emerged from Altamira at the time — notably Achaval Ferrer’s Finca Altamira — which appeared to become icons of Argentine wine overnight and claim the highest price on the wine list. The polished tannins, deep colour, floral lift and fresh acidity of Altamira Malbec were a winning combination and ‘Altamira’ became synonymous with quality.

As there was no legal definition for Altamira as a region, perhaps unsurprisingly, many other producers tried to jump on the bandwagon and labelled their wines as from ‘Altamira’ even if they were from significantly different locations. This was the breaking point for some producers working in the zone.

It took five years of research, 200 soil pits, a lot of mate and many maps for a handful of producers and researchers at the local University to come up with the boundaries of Altamira — a 4,790 hectare zone (with 1,400 hectares of vines), which was approved by the INV as ‘Paraje Altamira IG’ in 2013. (Paraje means ‘place’, and is now the legal prefix to the regional name due to a private company trademarking Altamira).

The announcement of Argentina’s first truly modern GI was groundbreaking, unprecedented and controversial. Altamira as a name and region had such weight that those vineyards and producers who fell on the wrong side of the new boundary lines campaigned to have the boundaries redrawn, to include their properties too. Everyone wanted to be part of ‘Paraje Altamira IG’ and be able to use the origin on their own label. After four more years of debate, the INV conceded to expand (practically double) the territory of Paraje Altamira GI to now include 2,800 hectares of vineyards, in a 9,290 hectare zone.

Although the formation of Paraje Altamira GI was riddled with heated tempers and in-fighting, it set the blueprint for the modern IG system in Argentina. And while some will always disagree with where the boundary now lies, the act of collaboration between wineries and researchers from the local universities pulling together data and information on soils, climate, geology and history set a new standard for delineating wine regions in Argentina. The San Pablo GI and El Cepillo GI followed suit last year, with boundaries drawn by geographical, geological and climatic limits, rather than political ones.

No doubt more will follow suit in the near future, and the development of these sub-regions shows a leap in maturity of the Argentine wine industry and the growing respect for origin and terroir.

25 de Mayo I.G. (San Juan)

9 de Julio I.G. (San Juan)

Agrelo I.G. (Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza)

Albardón I.G. (San Juan)

Alto valle de Río Negro I.G. (Río Negro)

Angaco I.G.(San Juan)

Añelo I.G. (Neuquén)

Arauco I.G. (La Rioja)

Avellaneda I.G. (Río Negro)

Barrancas I.G. (Maipú)

Barreal I.G. (Calingasta, San Juan)

Belén I.G. (Catamarca)

Cachi I.G. (Salta)

Cafayate – Valle de Cafayate I.G. (Salta)

Calingasta – Valle de Calingasta I.G. (San Juan)

Castro Barros I.G. (La Rioja)

Catamarca I.G. (Catamarca)

Caucete I.G. (San Juan)

Chapadmalal I.G. (Buenos Aires)

Chilecito I.G. (La Rioja)

Chimbas I.G. (San Juan)

Colón I.G. (Córdoba)

Caroya I.G. (Colón, Córdoba)

Confluencia I.G. (Neuquén)

Córdoba Argentina I.G. (Córdoba)

Cruz del Eje I.G. (Córdoba)

Cuyo I.G. (provinces of Mendoza, San Juan and La Rioja)

Distrito Medrano I.G. (between Rivadavia and Junín)

El Paraíso I.G. (Maipú, Mendoza)

Famatina I.G. (La Rioja)

Felipe Varela I.G. (La Rioja)

General Alvear I.G. (Mendoza)

General Conesa I.G. (Río Negro)

General Lamadrid I.G. (La Rioja)

General Roca I.G. (Río Negro)

Godoy Cruz I.G. (Mendoza)

Guaymallén I.G. (Mendoza)

Iglesia I.G. (San Juan)

Jáchal I.G. (San Juan)

Jujuy I.G. (Jujuy)

Junín I.G. (Mendoza)

La Consulta I.G. (San Carlos, Mendoza)

La Paz I.G. (Mendoza)

La Rioja Argentina I.G. (La Rioja)

Las Compuertas I.G. (Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza)

Las Heras I.G. (Mendoza)

Lavalle – Desierto de Lavalle I.G. (Mendoza)

Los Chacayes I.G. (Tunuyán, Mendoza) R

Lunlunta I.G. (Maipú, Mendoza)

Maipú I.G. (Mendoza)

Mendoza I.G. (Mendoza)

Molinos I.G. (Salta)

Neuquén I.G. (Neuquén)

Paraje Altamira I.G. (San Carlos, Mendoza)

Patagonia – Patagonia Argentina I.G. (including Río Negro,Neuquén, Chubut)

Pichimahuida I.G. (Río Negro)

Pocito I.G. (San Juan)

Pomán I.G. (Catamarca)

Pozo de los Algarrobos I.G. (Caucete, San Juan)

Quebrada de Humahuaca I.G. (Jujuy)

Rawson I.G. (San Juan)

Río Negro I.G. (Río Negro)

Rivadavia I.G. (Mendoza)

Rivadavia I.G. (San Juan)

Russel I.G. (Maipú, Mendoza)

Salta I.G. (Salta)

San Blas de los Sauces I.G. (La Rioja)

San Carlos I.G. (Mendoza)

San Carlos I.G. (Salta)

San Javier I.G. (Córdoba)

San Juan I.G. (San Juan)

San Martín I.G. (Mendoza)

San Martín I.G. (San Juan)

San Rafael I.G. (Mendoza)

Sanagasta I.G. (La Rioja)

Santa Lucía I.G. (San Juan)

Santa María I.G. (Catamarca)

Santa Rosa I.G. (Mendoza)

Sarmiento I.G. (San Juan)

Tafí I.G. (Tucumán)

Tinogasta I.G. (Catamarca)

Tucumán I.G. (Tucumán)

Tunuyán I.G. (Mendoza)

Tupungato – Valle de Tupungato I.G. (Mendoza)

Ullum I.G. (San Juan)

Valle de Chañarmuyo I.G. (Famatina, La Rioja)

Valle de Uco I.G., Uco Valley GI (San Carlos, Tunuyán and Tupungato in Mendoza)

Valle del Pedernal I.G. (Sarmiento, San Juan)

Valle del Tulum I.G., Tulum Valley GI (San Juan)

Valle Fértil I.G. (San Juan)

Valle de Zonda I.G. (Zonda, San Juan)

Valles Calchaquíes – Valle Calchaquí I.G. (Calchaquíes Valleys)

Valles del Famatina I.G., Famatina Valleys (La Rioja)

Vinchina I.G. (La Rioja)

Villa Ventana I.G. (Buenos Aires)

Vista Flores I.G. (Tunuyán, Mendoza)