Italian immigrants
A country built by immigrants
Argentina's modern character was forged in one of the largest migrations in human history. Between 1853 and 1910, roughly seven million European immigrants poured into the country through the port of Buenos Aires, drawn by progressive immigration policies and the promise of land. The Italians made up the largest single share — so much so that around 60% of Argentines today claim some Italian heritage, one of the biggest Italian diasporas in the world.
Many of those Italians came from the north: Piedmont, Lombardy, the Veneto, Valle d'Aosta — wine country at home. And while most settled in Buenos Aires or the Pampas, a meaningful number kept going west, all the way to Mendoza, where in 1885 a brand-new railway connected the foothills of the Andes to the capital. The vines were already there, planted by Spanish settlers centuries before. What arrived with the immigrants was the know-how.
How to taste it
You can hear all of this on a Sunday afternoon in Mendoza, but you can also taste it in three specific glasses.
- A Bonarda with pasta or pizza is the most literal example — the grape Italian immigrants brought and the food they popularized, in deliberate conversation.
- A juicy, friendly young Malbec drunk casually with grilled meat is the Italian attitude toward wine — generous, unfussy, made for the table — even though the grape itself is French.
- And an iconic Catena Zapata Malbec, the pinnacle of Argentine fine wine, is in family terms an Italian wine. The dynasty that built it began in a small village in Marche.
