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ARGENTINA
ORGANIC
JEAN BOUSQUET ENJOYING TIME WITH HIS FRIENDS AT HIS MENDOZA PROJECT
The great Argentinean food journalist, Miguel Brascó, used to say that in Argentina
all wines were organic without the need for certification, because the
paucity of rain and abundance of sunshine in the wine regions removed the need
for fertilisers in the vineyards.
However, the tendency to certify vineyards is growing, as evidenced by the figures:
79 wineries produce organic wines, and 69 of them export their products; the most
prolific organic varietal is Malbec, and the main markets are the European Union
(64%), the United Kingdom (14%), Switzerland (3%) and Japan (2%). Within the
European Union, the largest destinations are Denmark and Sweden.
In recent years, organic production has grown at rates of around 10% per year, and
most of the wineries that have not yet certified their products are in the process of
doing so. The situation could be summarised as follows: the trail has been blazed
and the trend is irreversible.
JEAN BOUSQUET, THE FRENCH PIONEER
In 1997, Jean Bousquet sold his winery in Carcassonne and set off in search of new
horizons to develop organic wines. He farmed vineyards in Chile and Argentina,
until he found his place in the new world: Gualtallary, Tupungato, in Mendoza’s
Uco Valley, which soon became one of the most coveted regions for Argentinean
and international wineries.
Some Gualtallary locals still remember the “crazy Frenchman”, who invested in
land here at a time when nobody else did, and who would point to the tree tops
AUTUMN 2023 • GILBERT & GAILLARD - THE FRENCH EXPERTS ON WINE
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