The underdog
The plot twist: Bonarda isn't Bonarda
Here is the telenovela-worthy part. The grape Argentina calls Bonarda is not the Italian grape of the same name (Bonarda Piemontese), and it is not Dolcetto either, despite a century of people assuming so.
The variety almost certainly arrived with Italian immigrants late in the 19th century, and for decades it was muddled up with Barbera and the Italian Bonarda. The truth only emerged through DNA testing: Argentine “Bonarda” is in fact Douce Noir (also called Corbeau) — a red grape from the alpine Savoie region of eastern France. The very same grape grows in California under yet another name, Charbono. By around 2008, genetic research had confirmed it definitively. To clear up the confusion, the Argentine name Bonarda Argentina was adopted to set it apart from the Italian variety.
So three countries, three names, one grape — and Argentina is now by far its biggest home, with well over 85% of the world's plantings of it.
Just how big is it, really
Bigger than most people realize. Argentina grows roughly 18,000 hectares of Bonarda — close to 10% of all the grapes planted in the country, and second only to Malbec among red varieties. For a grape almost no foreign drinker can name, that is a remarkable footprint. It sits just ahead of household names like Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah in vineyard area.
Its heartland is the warmer country of East Mendoza and San Juan, with meaningful plantings in other northern provinces too — including La Rioja, where it ripens alongside the region's Torrontés.
Why it grows where it grows
Bonarda is a late ripener — it can come in even after Cabernet Sauvignon — so it needs heat and a long hang time to reach full maturity. That is why the warm, sunny zones of East Mendoza and San Juan suit it so well. High-altitude sites work too, where intense mountain sunlight does the ripening that the cooler air might otherwise slow.
The grapes are thick-skinned and rich in phenolics, the compounds responsible for color and flavor. The payoff in the glass is a wine that is deeply colored yet surprisingly gentle on tannin — and the best sites, with big swings between warm days and cool nights, lock in the bright acidity that keeps it lively.
