ENRU

    Arrows to move, Enter to open

    Mendoza

    Argentina

    Dry vineyards in the Andean foothills, on stony alluvium carried down from the mountains.

    30–50° N30–50° SequatorMendoza
    Vineyard area
    142 785 ha (2024)1
    Country
    Argentina
    Rocks in the profile
    topsoil, alluvium, gravel

    Argentina's largest vineyard

    At the end of 2024 Mendoza had 142,785 hectares of vines in 14,593 vineyards, 71.4% of Argentina's vineyard area.1 Malbec is the province's most planted variety at 27.9% of the area, followed by Bonarda, Cereza, Criolla Grande and Cabernet Sauvignon.1 Of the 47,064 hectares of Malbec registered in Argentina in 2024, 39,856 hectares, or 84.7%, were in Mendoza.2

    Altitude and alluvium

    In the Uco Valley, vineyards lie in the foothills of the Andes at 900 to 1,500 metres above sea level, on soils shaped by alluvial and fluvial processes.3 In one Uco Valley vineyard, the deep soils were sandy-loam alluvial sediments, while in the shallow soils boulders over 0.3 metres across filled about 85% of the profile.3

    topsoilalluviumgravel
    Schematic profile based on the sources, not to scale.

    A study of Malbec from 23 parcels in 12 geographical indications describes these high regions as semi-arid to arid, usually with less than 300 mm of rain a year, most of it falling in the growing season from October to April.4 Over three vintages, 2016 to 2018, the wines' phenolic composition separated them by geographical indication and by parcel.4

    History

    Malbec reached Argentina in 1853 with the French agronomist Michel Aimé Pouget, hired by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento to run the Quinta Agronómica.5 On 17 April 1853, with the support of Mendoza's governor Pedro Pascual Segura, the project for a Quinta Normal and a school of agriculture was presented.5

    Timeline

    1. 1853

      Malbec reaches Argentina with the French agronomist Michel Aimé Pouget; on 17 April the project for a Quinta Normal in Mendoza is presented.5

    Grapes

    Soils

    Sources

    1. Anuario de superficie vitícola 2024 (Informe anual de superficie). Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura (INV), Argentina, 2025. level 1 · checked 2026-10-13
    2. Informe Malbec 2025. Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura (INV), Argentina, 2025. level 1 · checked 2026-10-13
    3. Impact of intra-vineyard soil heterogeneity on Malbec: vine growth, yield and wine elemental composition and sensory profile (Roig-Puscama, Piccoli, Gil, Patón, Berli), Rev. Fac. Cienc. Agrar. UNCuyo 57(1). Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Revista de la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, 2025. level 3 · checked 2026-10-13
    4. Terroir and vintage discrimination of Malbec wines based on phenolic composition across multiple sites in Mendoza, Argentina (Urvieta, Jones, Buscema, Bottini, Fontana), Scientific Reports 11, doi:10.1038/s41598-021-82306-0. Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio), 2021. level 3 · checked 2026-10-13
    5. Malbec World Day 2018 — gacetilla de lanzamiento. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto de Argentina (Cancillería) / Wines of Argentina, 2018. level 4 · checked 2026-10-13