Wines of Argentina & Chile

In the mid-1500s, Spanish missionaries spreading the good word throughout South America had a problem. It’s hard to administer communion without sacramental wine. Yeast is ubiquitous, so making sacramental bread wasn’t an issue but the lack of Vitis vinifera (the vine species that produce grapes for wine) made it impossible to make wine. And being sticklers for the rules, no other fruit juice was going to do. 
 
The solution was to import the Spanish grape Listán Prieto, which became known as Pais in much of South America. Pais is a hardy grape and prefers the hot dry climate of South America. It’s not known for making high quality wine, but it was good enough for sacramental wine. (Pais is still grown in South America but used mostly in the production of bulk wine for domestic purposes.) 
 
Grapes like Carmenere, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, arrived in the 1800s, but winemaking didn’t improve until the early 1900s with the arrival of European immigrants, who brought more advanced winemaking techniques.

The “Malbec Boom” of the early 2000s finally brought the world’s attention to the wines of Argentina and acclaim for Chile’s wines soon followed. The last few decades have seen a meteoric rise in the quality of South American wines. While Argentina is still mostly known for Malbec and Chile for its Carmenere, both countries are producing a host of internationally renowned red and white wines.