Curated Argentina 2025: The WofA Masterclass Recap

Argentina Unsurpassed: The Wines of Argentina Masterclass at Curated Argentina 2025

One of the most anticipated moments of Curated Argentina 2025 was the exclusive Wines of Argentina Masterclass, led by Phil Crozier and presented under the title Argentina Unsurpassed: The Diversity of Argentina Seen Through the Lens of the Bordeaux Varieties.

The session brought together specialist trade, sommeliers, wine experts, and friends of the BACC for an in-depth exploration of what makes Argentine wine genuinely exceptional — and why the Bordeaux varieties, in particular, find such a compelling home in Argentina's extraordinary landscape.

About Phil Crozier

Phil Crozier's relationship with Argentine wine is as long as it is distinguished. He opened the first Gaucho restaurant in 1994 and made the bold decision in 1999 to make its wine list entirely Argentine — at a time when Argentina was only just beginning to export to the UK and Europe. By the time he left Gaucho in 2018 as Director of Wine, he was overseeing 16 restaurants across the UK, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Beirut, and annual wine sales of around £15 million. His introduction of the Super Malbec fine wine list in 2008 did much to establish Malbec as a premium offering in the UK on-trade.

Phil joined Wines of Argentina in 2019 as Brand Ambassador for Europe, and today co-owns Ucopia Wines, a specialist importer focused on small independent Argentine winemakers. He has judged at the Decanter World Wine Awards for many years and holds the titles of Wine Personality of the Year in both the UK and Argentina (2015), as well as New World Wine List of the Year in 2009 and 2011.

What the Masterclass Covered

The session took guests on a journey through Argentina's remarkable wine geography — from the high-altitude vineyards of Salta in the north, through the celebrated sub-regions of Mendoza's Uco Valley, to the emerging Atlantic coast wine country of Buenos Aires province.

Phil used the Bordeaux varieties — Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Semillón — as a lens through which to explore Argentina's diversity. Each variety revealed something different about the terroir, the altitude, the climate, and the winemaking vision behind it. Five red Bordeaux varieties alone account for nearly 60% of the surface area planted to red varieties in Argentina — a striking figure that underlines just how naturally the country has taken to this family of grapes.

Guests tasted through a carefully selected range of wines, from the single-vineyard precision of El Porvenir de Cafayate's Laborum Malbec in Salta to the chalky intensity of La Celia's Heritage Malbec from Paraje Altamira, the Bordeaux-inspired complexity of Catena Zapata's The Birth of Cabernet, the coastal freshness of Puerta del Abra's Insólito Cabernet Franc from Buenos Aires, and the multi-regional blend of Trivento's Stratos from across the Uco Valley — among others.

Throughout, Phil drew on his decades of experience to frame each wine within a broader narrative: of a country that has gone from producing large volumes of domestic wine in the 1970s to placing four wineries on La Place de Bordeaux by 2022, receiving the first 100-point Robert Parker scores in 2018, and claiming the number one spot in World's Best Vineyards in 2019.

A Longstanding Collaboration

The masterclass reflects the BACC's longstanding and valued partnership with Wines of Argentina, whose support for the Argentine Wine & Travel Club and the Curated Argentina mission series has been instrumental in showcasing the depth and ambition of Argentine wine to the UK trade.

Our sincere thanks to Wines of Argentina for sponsoring the masterclass, and to Phil Crozier for a session that was as educational as it was genuinely enjoyable to taste through.

Curated Argentina 2025 is the flagship trade mission of the British Argentine Chamber of Commerce, delivered through its Argentine Wine & Travel Club in London. The BACC has been facilitating UK-Argentine business relationships for 30 years. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit baccnetwork.com.