As the summer sun blazes, there’s nothing quite like effervescence of an Espumante to cool things down. Argentina, renowned for its Malbec, has been steadily making waves with its exceptional sparkling wines, Espumantes. The country’s journey into sparkling wine production began in the early 20th century, influenced by European immigrants, particularly those from Italy and Spain.
While initially overshadowed by the more popular still wines, Espumantes have steadily gained recognition and appreciation with vintners spending the last few decades honing their craft to create sparkling wine varieties that rival some of the best in the world. In fact, Argentina’s Espumantes experience year-on-year growth both in the domestic market as well as the international marketplace with domestic sales claiming the majority of the more than 397,077 hl produced, according to the National Institute of Viticulture. The remaining 65,544 hl of sparkling wine were exported mainly to the USA, Brazil, Chile, China, Ecuador, France and Uruguay at a value of US$29,541,000.
The most-sold Espumante segment in Argentina is dry sparkling wine, which represents 54.7 per cent of the total domestic intake followed by sweet sparkling wine (31.9 per cent) and demi-sec sparkling wine (8.
3 per cent). Mendoza is the region where 99 per cent of the country’s Espumante is produced with Luján de Cuyo (39.7 per cent), Maipú (32.
5 per cent), San Rafael (17.2 per cent) and Tunuyán (4.9 per cent) the top p.