Argentina Wine: Mendoza, Uco Valley and Beyond

Argentina wine means Malbec for most drinkers, and most of it comes from Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes. The country’s vineyards run along the mountains from the far north to Patagonia, and many sit high in the foothills, where nights are cool even in a hot, dry climate. Beyond Malbec, look for juicy Bonarda, floral Torrontés and cool-climate Pinot Noir. This guide covers the regions, with Mendoza and the Uco Valley in detail, the grapes and where the value is.

Argentina by the numbers

Argentina’s national wine institute, the INV (Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura), publishes a yearly vineyard report. Its 2025 report, with data to December 31, 2025, gives these figures:

• Vineyard area: 196,220 hectares (about 484,869 acres) on 20,939 vineyards, down 3,726 hectares in a year and 12.4% over the past decade.
• Wine grapes: 91.9% of the area is grapes for wine or grape must; the rest is table grapes and raisins.
• Color: of the wine grapes, 61.0% are red, 22.1% pink-skinned (such as Cereza and Criolla Grande) and 17.0% white.
• Where: vines grow in 20 provinces, but Mendoza has 71.7% of the area and San Juan 19.7%. La Rioja, Salta, Catamarca, Neuquén and Río Negro follow, and these seven provinces hold 99.3% of the total.

In our view, the pink-skinned criolla grapes are the surprise in those numbers. They are old local varieties used mostly for everyday wine and grape must, and you’ll rarely see them named on a US shelf.

Argentina’s main grapes

Grape	Area, end of 2025 (INV)	Share of all vines	What to know
Malbec	46,890 ha	23.9%	Argentina’s flagship red; 39,771 ha in Mendoza
Cereza	23,243 ha	11.8%	Pink-skinned criolla grape, mostly for must and bulk wine
Bonarda	16,360 ha	8.3%	Second most planted red; deep color, juicy fruit
Cabernet Sauvignon	12,300 ha	6.3%	Often blended with Malbec
Criolla Grande	11,254 ha	5.7%	Pink-skinned criolla grape
Syrah	9,823 ha	5.0%	Mostly Mendoza and San Juan
Torrontés Riojano	6,574 ha	3.4%	The main Torrontés type
Chardonnay	5,616 ha	2.9%	Leading international white

Shares for the top five grapes are the INV’s; the rest are our calculation from its hectares. The INV notes that Malbec gained 6,490 hectares over the last decade, more than any other grape, though it lost 174 hectares in 2025. Our Malbec wine guide, which uses the INV’s end-2024 figures, covers how it tastes and how Argentine Malbec compares with Cahors.

Bonarda

Wines of Argentina calls Bonarda the second most cultivated red after Malbec, brought by immigrants in the late 1800s. It describes the wine as deeply colored, with good body, raspberry and subtle aniseed notes, and says 60% of it grows in eastern Mendoza, a warm zone at about 2,300 feet (700 meters). We’d try a Bonarda if you like Malbec and want something a little softer and fruitier at an everyday price.

Torrontés

Torrontés is Argentina’s signature white, and Wines of Argentina says it grows only in Argentina. There are three types: Riojano, the most planted and finest, and the lighter Sanjuanino and Mendocino. Its aromas of rose, jasmine and geranium suggest a sweet wine, but the wine itself is dry with fresh acidity. Wines of Argentina singles out Torrontés from the Cafayate Valley in Salta.

Mendoza

Mendoza, in the center-west at the foot of the Andes, is Argentina’s most important wine province and has the largest number of wineries, according to Wines of Argentina. The Andes block the humid winds from the Pacific, and the province is far from the Atlantic, so the climate is dry and continental, and snowmelt from the mountains is one of the key factors for its vineyards. Wines of Argentina puts Mendoza’s vineyards at 1,411 to 6,562 feet (about 430 to 2,000 meters) above sea level.

Wines of Argentina divides Mendoza into five sub-regions:

Sub-region	Departments	Vineyard area, 2025 (INV)
Primera Zona (first zone)	Luján de Cuyo, Maipú	25,798 ha
Uco Valley (Valle de Uco GI)	Tupungato, Tunuyán, San Carlos	29,935 ha
East	San Martín, Rivadavia, Junín, Santa Rosa, La Paz	the largest by area
North	Lavalle, Las Heras
South	San Rafael, Malargüe, General Alvear

Areas for Primera Zona and the Uco Valley are our sums of the INV’s department figures. Mendoza as a whole had 140,682 hectares at the end of 2025, 11.3% less than in 2016. The biggest department is San Martín, in the East, with 25,417 hectares.

Luján de Cuyo and Maipú

Luján de Cuyo (15,167 ha in 2025) and Maipú (10,631 ha) are the historic heart of Mendoza wine, which Wines of Argentina calls the Primera Zona. Both have lost vineyard area in the past decade, Maipú by 14.8% since 2016, according to the INV. Luján de Cuyo is still Mendoza’s second-largest department and the one with the most Malbec, as our Malbec guide explains.

The Uco Valley

The Uco Valley (Valle de Uco) is the name to know for high-altitude Mendoza wine. It lies south of Mendoza city along Ruta Nacional 40 and is made up of the departments of Tupungato, Tunuyán and San Carlos. Argentina’s official tourism site puts its vineyards at 900 to 1,700 meters (about 2,950 to 5,580 feet) above sea level, in a dry climate with little rain and a wide range between day and night temperatures. It lists Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc among its wines.

The Uco Valley is also where Mendoza is growing. Between 2016 and 2025, Tupungato’s vineyards grew 9.6% to 10,810 hectares and Tunuyán’s 12.1% to 10,445 hectares, while San Carlos held steady at 8,680 hectares, according to the INV. Over the same period Mendoza as a whole shrank by 11.3%.

In our view, an Uco Valley Malbec is the best way to see what altitude does to the grape. We’d pick one for a nice dinner and a basic Mendoza Malbec for burgers.

Salta and the North

Salta’s vineyards sit very high. Wines of Argentina says they start at 5,020 feet and reach 10,207 feet (about 1,530 to 3,111 meters) at Payogasta, in the department of Cachi. Most are in the Calchaquí Valleys GI, a chain of valleys about 270 km (168 miles) long that Salta shares with Catamarca and Tucumán.

The Cafayate Valley GI is the center of northern wine, with 75% of Salta’s vineyards. Wines of Argentina describes a hot climate with cool nights, long summers and sandy soils, and wines with good color, intense tannins and often high alcohol. Torrontés Riojano is Salta’s finest white; Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tannat are its key reds. Salta had 3,701 hectares of vines at the end of 2025, and the largest average vineyard size of any major province, 23.3 hectares, per the INV.

Patagonia

Argentina’s southern vineyards are low but cool, because latitude does the work that altitude does in the north.

• Neuquén: vineyards at 886 to 1,362 feet (about 270 to 415 meters), mostly in the Limay and Neuquén river basins, where San Patricio del Chañar emerged as a wine center in the late 1990s. Wines of Argentina describes very cold nights, severe drought, strong sun and constant wind, and lists Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
• Río Negro: valleys along the Colorado and Negro rivers, from 1,214 feet in the west down to 13 feet near the Atlantic at San Javier. Wines of Argentina praises its Malbec, Merlot and Pinot Noir and its Sauvignon Blanc and Semillón, with a good balance of alcohol and acidity.

Neuquén had 1,508 hectares and Río Negro 1,260 hectares at the end of 2025, per the INV. We’d look here first for Argentine Pinot Noir.

How to read an Argentine wine label

Most Argentine labels name the grape and a place. “Mendoza” is the broadest; a department such as Luján de Cuyo, Tupungato or Tunuyán, or a GI such as Valle de Uco or Valle de Cafayate, points to a more specific area. The INV says 52 grape varieties, covering 76.7% of the winemaking area, count as high oenological quality under Argentina’s Law 25,163 and may be used for wines with a denomination of origin and for Reserva and Gran Reserva wines. Our guide to how to read a wine label explains the general terms.

Food pairing

These are our suggestions:

Argentine wine	Try it with	Why it works
Malbec	Steak, burgers, barbecue	Ripe fruit and soft tannin suit grilled beef
Bonarda	Pizza, pasta with meat sauce, empanadas	Juicy and low in tannin
Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec blends	Grilled lamb, aged cheese	Firmer structure
Patagonian Pinot Noir	Salmon, mushrooms, duck	Lighter red with fresh acidity
Torrontés	Spicy Asian dishes, empanadas, seafood	Wines of Argentina suggests fish, seafood, northwestern dishes such as locro, and spicy Thai, Indian or Chinese food

For more beef matches, see our guide to wine with steak.

Good-value Argentine wine

We don’t name specific bottles on this page. Our value picks follow our rating method, with a published critic score for a named vintage and a US price checked at two or more stores.

What to look for meanwhile: under our thresholds, a Malbec with 88 or 89 points at $15 or less, or 90 to 92 points at $20 or less, would be a Great Value. In our view, Bonarda and Torrontés are often better buys than Malbec because fewer people look for them. To compare with the country across the Andes, read our Chilean wine guide.