Valle de Uco

In an effort to shed some light on how I study for WSET Diploma Course’s D3 exam, Le Club des Vins is running a series of posts covering wine regions. Today’s topic: Valle de Uco

📍 Location

Valle de Uco is located southwest of Mendoza (Argentina) along the Tunuyán River. It’s known for its high altitude vineyards, ranging from 850 meters to well over 1500 meters.⠀

In a nutshell

Argentina
High vineyards 850-1500 meters!
Hot days, cold nights
Malbec mainly

☁️ Climate

The region is located at a latitude of 33°S, meaning day temperatures are high but they are combined with (much) cooler nights. This diurnal range is much wider than in the rest of Mendoza and does something special 🙂 On the one hand, the grapes accumulate less sugar and retain more acidity, on the other hand the skins get a deeper color and riper tannins because of the higher intensity of sunshine. It’s fairly dry, so drip irrigation (with water from the river) is quite common.⠀

🌋 Soils

Mostly alluvial, clay rock base with stony, sandy surface.⠀

🍇 Grapes & styles

Malbec is the number one grape variety here. There’s some cabernet franc as well. For whites, Valle de Uco is great for (premium) chardonnay and torrontés.⠀

💡 Something you didn’t know (did you?)

Valle de Uco has several subregions, for example La Consulta and Vista Flores. Flying wine maker Michel Rolland produces a wine, @closdelossiete, in Valle de Uco made of malbec and almost all other Bordeaux varieties (and syrah). Best known producer of Mendoza is of course @catenawines 💪🏼 They make a spectacular malbec, coming from the Adrianna vineyard, planted at almost 1500 meters elevation in the Andes foothills.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Your turn now

I always put a new region on instagram first. If you have any additions or comments on a region, please do share. You can drop a comment on instagram or on the website – see below. Your help is much appreciated!