Catamarca IG

Catamarca had 2,370 hectares and 768 vineyards in the 2025 INV count, 1.2% of the country's vines. Tinogasta has 1,475 of those hectares and Santa María 721. Malbec covers 354 hectares. The province was long known for table grapes and raisins, and quality wine is recent.

Three projects give a picture. Veralma, part of Altos de Tinogasta, plants at about 1,300 metres on the slope of the precordillera, with 54 hectares in vines on a 300 hectare estate. El Esteco's Chañar Punco is at about 2,000 metres in the Quilmes mountains, on poor, rocky, calcareous soil. Its Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Merlot field blend comes from alluvial cones that its agronomist says carry gneiss and garnet. La Bordalesa in Santa María makes Malbec and Torrontés.

I'd look for Malbec and Cabernet that keep their freshness at altitude.