I had been looking at the results of the 2026 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) when I came across Campos de Solana, a winery in Tarija that had collected five medals. One silver and four bronze awards, from a competition that assessed more than 16,000 entries, was enough to make me stop scrolling.

Having lived in Argentina surrounded by one of South America’s great wine cultures for as long as I have, I know how easy it is for Mendoza to become the beginning and end of the conversation. It is a superb destination, and deservedly famous. Yet after years of living here, I find myself increasingly interested in the places that sit just beyond the established map. Tarija made me curious.

That is where I think wine tourism becomes useful for Caribbean travellers. A medal can catch your attention, but a place has to give you a reason to travel. Campos de Solana’s result is worth understanding in simple terms. The winery entered five wines in the 2026 DWWA and all five received medals: Único Tannat received bronze at 86 points; TRI Gran Reserva received silver at 91; Esther Ortiz Petit Verdot received bronze at 88; Innovante Tannat received bronze at 88; and Innovante Marselan received bronze at 87.

I would not turn that into a claim that Bolivia has suddenly joined the world’s elite wine regions. That would be stretching the evidence. What it does tell me is that a producer from Tarija has put itself in front of a very large international panel and received recognition across five entries. Decanter describes its 2026 results as evidence of a wine world whose geography is continuing to expand. Wines from 56 countries received medals, and the competition involved 245 judges from 35 countries.

For a traveller, that changes the question. Instead of asking whether Bolivia is already a famous wine destination, I would ask whether it is becoming interesting enough to visit. I think it is.

Tarija has been producing wine in a part of Bolivia that feels very different from the mental picture many Caribbean travellers carry of South America. This is highland wine country. The vineyards around Tarija sit at significant elevation, and the region has developed a wine identity of its own.

I have learned in Argentina that altitude is something you eventually stop treating as a technical wine term and start noticing as part of the journey. You see it in the landscape. You feel the change in the air. You begin to understand why two places growing grapes on the same continent can produce such different experiences.

That is the part of South American wine travel that interests me most. It gives us a reason to travel through the landscape rather than simply arrive at a famous address. For someone coming from Jamaica, that difference is quite appealing. We are used to thinking about travel through warmth, coastline, water, tropical food and the easy pleasure of being outdoors.

South America offers a very different range of sensations. In wine country, the landscape becomes part of the experience. Mountains replace the horizon we know from the Caribbean. Vineyards replace the beach as the visual starting point. Lunch stretches into conversation. A tasting gives you something to talk about long after the glass is empty.

None of this requires being a wine expert. In fact, I think wine travel is often better when you arrive without trying to prove that you know something. Ask where the vineyard is. Ask why grapes are grown there. Ask what people in the region eat.

Ask what the winemaker is trying to achieve. Then taste.

That approach has served me well in Argentina. It has also changed the way I look at destinations. A wine region is never only about wine. It is agriculture, landscape, food, hospitality, local history and the people who have decided that a particular piece of land is worth cultivating. The wine simply gives the traveller a way into that conversation.

Campos de Solana gives Tarija another opening. The five medals are useful because they provide a point of reference that a traveller can understand. Decanter is a recognised international competition. Its judging is blind, and the wines are assessed through discussion and retasting.

A bronze sits at 86 to 89 points, while silver covers 90 to 94. The distinction matters because it keeps the result in perspective.

Five medals do not make a destination famous. They make it harder to dismiss. That is a much more interesting place for an emerging wine region to be.

South America is already home to established wine powerhouses. Argentina and Chile have built strong international reputations, while Uruguay, Brazil and other producers continue to add different stories to the continent’s wine identity. Decanter’s 2026 results reinforce that wider movement, with Brazil recording its strongest-ever performance in the competition’s gold and silver categories and Argentina earning its first gold for an orange wine.

The map is becoming more interesting and, for Caribbean travellers, that creates a real opportunity. We tend to think about South America through the destinations that have already earned a place in our travel vocabulary. Buenos Aires. Rio.

Cartagena. Lima. Mendoza. There is nothing wrong with those choices.

I simply think there is something exciting about adding a place because you became curious about it. This is what led me to Tarija on my mental map. I saw five medals attached to a Bolivian winery and found myself wanting to know what was behind them. That curiosity led me away from the scores and towards the landscape.

That, to me, is the more valuable part of the story.

If I were planning a South American journey for a Caribbean traveller who enjoys food and wine, I would want room for somewhere like Tarija. There is a particular pleasure in discovering a destination while it is still becoming familiar. You notice things differently, ask better questions and return with a story that is yours, rather than one assembled from the same list everyone else has followed.

After many years in Argentina, I have become comfortable with the idea that South America’s wine story will never belong to one country or one valley. Campos de Solana reminded me of that.

Five medals from Tarija do not close the argument about Bolivian wine. They open one.

And for a traveller from the Caribbean, sometimes that is exactly what you want from a destination: A good enough reason to start looking. Salud!

High in Bolivia, Tarija has developed a wine identity shaped by altitude, landscape and place.

Tarija offers another way of seeing South American wine country, far beyond the familiar Mendoza narrative.

TRI Gran Reserva earned silver at 91 points, the highest-rated of Campos de Solana’s five entries at the 2026 DWWA.

Esther Ortiz Petit Verdot scored 88 points and received bronze, one of four Campos de Solana wines to reach that level.

Innovante Tannat also received bronze at 88 points, reinforcing the breadth of Campos de Solana’s showing.

Innovante Marselan completed the winery’s five-entry result with bronze at 87 points.