South American Wines Worth Buying in 2026: 8 Top Picks!

In this video, I've compiled some of my favorite wine recommendations from South America for the past six months or so. There's a wide variety of price points and wine styles represented, so there should be something for everyone. And if you have any wines that you've enjoyed from South America, please let us know in the comments below. The next top wine for $50 a bottle is the product of a joint venture between the owners of legendary first growth Bordeaux producer and top Chilean producer Concha y Toro. Alma Viva is a producer that's located in the Maipo Valley in Chile, about 90 minutes south of Santiago. Their top wine is consistently outstanding but sells for around $150 or more per bottle, but they also have a second wine that offers compelling value at around the $50 price point. I recently had a chance to taste the 2022 Alma Viva EPU at the James Suckling Great Worlds of Wine event in New York, and I was impressed with it. I thought it delivers exceptional value at this price point. This wine is a Cabernet Sauvignon dominant blend that has 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Carmenere, and it has smaller percentages of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Bordeaux. This is a wine that matures for 12 months in only 10% New French oak, so it's definitely a wine that's designed for early consumption. For that reason, it makes an excellent cellar defender, and it's a terrific choice for those of you who don't want to wait to enjoy your wines. Cheval des Indes represents a remarkable fusion between Bordeaux heritage and Andean terroir. Conceived as a grand crew of the Andes, it unites the winemaking expertise of legendary right bank Bordeaux producer Chateau Cheval Blanc with the mountain terroir of Terrazas de los Andes in Mendoza. The inspiration was to craft a wine using fruit from ungrafted Malbec vines planted at high elevation in the Andes foothills. Much of the fruit comes from the historic Las Compuertas vineyard that was planted way back in 1929. The fruit from these old vines adds remarkable depth and authenticity of character. In most vintages, the fruit will be a blend of around 50% Malbec and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon. In 2022, however, they used a higher percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon, right around two-thirds or so, because in that vintage Cabernet Sauvignon performed better. In some vintages, they may add a little bit of Petit Verdot as well. I recently attended a master class for Cheval des Indes, and I learned that the key to creating truly elite wines that rely heavily on Malbec is to make sure that you aggressively control the yields for Malbec. Without yield control, you can get some wines that are a little bit uninspiring and that lack concentration and intensity. But that's certainly not the case with this wine, particularly in 2022. This is an intensely concentrated, powerful wine, but one that also has extremely refined and polished tannins. While I enjoyed all four vintages of Cheval des Indes that we tried at the recent master class, in my view, the 2022 was definitely the standout of that quartet. This highly acclaimed wine features flavors and aromas that include mixed red, blue, and black fruit, mixed spice, menthol, and an intriguing floral note as well. This wine has a long, complex finish and refined, polished tannins. This is wine that will cruise in your cellar for 12 to 15 years or more, and it's definitely one that I hope to revisit down the road. While the price for this wine has been creeping up in recent years, quality for this wine has been improving even faster. In fact, in my opinion, the quality of this wine compares extremely favorably to many of the Bordeaux blends from South America that you'll see selling for around $150 or so per bottle. So certainly from that standpoint, this wine represents extreme relative value. Next, we head to Argentina for an intriguing white wine from Mendoza. This is another wine that I tried at the James Suckling event in New York recently, and it was definitely a standout, especially at this price point. This highly acclaimed wine comes from vineyards located in Lujan de Cuyo, which is one of Mendoza's most respected subregions. The winery representative gave me some interesting insights into this wine. He said that this fruit used to be blended into other white wines, but that at some point the quality became so high that they decided to bottle it separately. And I'm glad that they did. This is the 2023 El Inamigo Semillon. The winemaking approach to this wine is also quite unique, as 35% of the wine matures under a layer of flour, or a thin film of yeast, which is a technique more commonly used for sherry. This helps to give the wine some additional complexity and texture, while at the same time preserving freshness and acidity. In the glass, you'll find flavors and aromas of stone fruit, mandarin, citrus oil, dried flowers, and subtle savory notes. On the palate, this wine has an intriguing texture, and it's a little bit oily. There's also a striking saline quality that keeps everything fresh and lively. Senya is one of my favorite producers from Chile, and I've featured that producer many times on this channel before, but it was definitely a treat to compare the 2020 and 2021 vintages of Senya. In fact, Senya was pouring both nights, so I was able to do this comparison two nights in a row. The 2021 vintage was one that received a perfect 100 point score from James Suckling, and I can see why, as this wine has absolutely everything. But it is a wine that's going to have a longer life ahead of it, and one that needs some additional time to show its best. In contrast, the 2020 vintage was a little bit warmer and drier, and so this is a that's more approachable and that you can enjoy earlier on. In fact, I found that it was showing a little bit better than the 2021 vintage, particularly on day two. So if you're interested in a Senya that you can enjoy immediately, I would go ahead and get the 2020 vintage. But if you want the best of the bunch, and you don't mind waiting a little bit, then the 2021 will be a wine that will reward your patience. Next up is a wine that offers extremely compelling quality at this price point. It may cost you a few dollars more than $30 per bottle, but it's certainly well worth it. This is a mineral-driven wine with ample acidity and a long, complex finish. This wine features flavors and aromas of peaches, pear, citrus, and floral notes. This is the 2022 Catena Alta Chardonnay. The fruit for this wine comes from high altitude sources in the Uco Valley. Significantly, a good portion of the fruit comes from the Hualtajarí area, which is a high altitude area in the prestigious Tupingato district in northern Uco Valley. The high altitude vineyard sources definitely play a big role in the quality of this wine. This is so because at high elevations, there's typically abundant sun exposure and warmth that will help the fruit to ripen, but there's also a wide diurnal range, as there's cooler nights that help to extend the growing season and ensure that the fruit has abundant acidity and freshness. This is wine that matures for around 14 months or so in a mix of new and used oak. The next top wine for $25 a bottle comes from another world-class producer. This time, the producer is located in Mendoza, Argentina. This is a wine that comes from the 2021 vintage, and I'm generally a fan of the 2021 vintage in Mendoza. It was a cooler vintage, and there was some rain throughout the year as well, but savvy producers use these cooler conditions to their advantage, letting their fruit ripen fully over an extended growing season. The result is the best of both worlds with fruit that was intensely concentrated and ripe, yet which had impressive acidity and freshness as well. So the 2021 El Enemigo Malbec comes in at an impressive 13.5% alcohol by volume and has remarkable acidity and freshness for a wine from Mendoza, Argentina. While this wine has Malbec on the label, it's actually a red blend that consists of 90% Malbec but also 10% Cabernet Franc or so. El Enemigo has some excellent Cabernet Franc, and I think that this addition makes a big difference in this wine. This is a wine that has flavors and aromas of mixed red and black fruit, licorice, whetstone, spice, and floral notes. It was well-received by critics, and it's a no-brainer if you enjoy South American wines or Malbec generally. Catena Zapata always shows up strong for the James Suckling events, and this year was certainly no exception. They brought one of their 100-point wines from 2020-12, namely the Fortuna Terre Adriana Vineyard. This was a deep, brooding, powerful wine with incredible intensity, yet it was also extremely well-balanced with ample freshness and acidity. Really an extremely impressive wine with a long complex finish. While this is not the current release for this wine, and I'm not sure that you'll be able to find this particular vintage, I mention it because the 2015 vintage will be coming out soon, and I spoke with Miss Catena, and she advised that she thinks that one's even more impressive than this wine that received a perfect score. So definitely keep your eyes out for that one. Although Argentina is certainly most well-known for the production of Malbec, it's actually an excellent source for high-quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as well, particularly in some of the high-altitude vineyards that have cooler temperatures, particularly at night. One example is the prestigious Hualtayarí area, which is located in the Chupangato district in the northern Uco Valley. This winery was founded by Dr. Laura Catena of Catena Zapata. This winery is inspired by Burgundy and has a lot of French influence. It was named after Dr. Laura Catena's daughter, Nicola. This is the 2023 Domaine Nico Glacement Pinot Noir. The fruit of this wine comes from a small 1.4 hectare parcel that was planted way back in 1994. They use 40% whole cluster fermentation and mature this wine in 10% new French oak. This is a mineral-driven wine with descriptors that include mixed red fruit, pepper, earth, and alpine forest. There's impressive acidity and a long finish. This is a wine you can enjoy immediately or at any time over the next 10 years. If you enjoyed this video and you'd like to see some of my favorite Italian wine recommendations, please be sure to watch this video that's linked above.