Vine varieties: Pinks

These are the grapes which account for more than a quarter of all vines planted in Argentina whose skins at full ripeness are distinctly pink. criolla grande, Criolla Chica, and cereza are some of Argentina’s oldest varieties. Both Criollas and Cereza are extremely productive varieties of which one bunch on a well-irrigated vineyard can weigh as much as 4 kg/9 lb. They are typically planted in the hotter, flatter, most heavily irrigated vineyards. Moscatel Rosada is another important pink-skinned variety, of which there was a total of 7,084 ha/17,504 acres in 2013. The wine produced from these varieties is usually very deeply coloured white, occasionally pink, often quite sweet, and sold at the bottom end of the market, either in bulk or in litre bottles or cardboard cartons, as everyday wine within Argentina, or blended with basic Malbec to produce a light red.