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Argentinian wine

Argentinian wine: Encyclopedia - Argentinian wine

Argentina’s wine history goes back nearly five hundred years when a Spanish friar by the name of Juan Cedron (or Cidron) brought the first vine cuttings to Santiago del Estero in 1557. From here, vines were soon planted in Mendoza, San Juan, and other provinces. The Spanish made use of the existing irrigation canals built by the indigenous Huarpe people and designed by engineers of the eighth Inca Yupanqui one thousand years ago. These canals brought the pure snow-melt water from the Andes onto the sun-drenched hills and valle ...

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Argentinian wine - Regions

Argentinian wine - Organizations

Argentinian wine, Argentinian wine - Organizations, Argentinian wine - Regions

Argentinian wine: Encyclopedia - Argentinian wine

Argentinian wine

The Spanish made use of the existing irrigation canals built by the indigenous Huarpe people and designed by engineers of the eighth Inca Yupanqui one thousand years ago. These canals brought the pure snow-melt water from the Andes onto the sun-drenched hills and valleys of what are now the major wine regions of Argentina.

Being on the right side of the Andes, the wine growing regions of Argentina are blessed with copious amounts of sunshine, low humidity, vast differences between day and night temperatures (most vineyards are planted between 300 and 2300 metres above sea-level), and pure water. Compared to other wine producing countries, Argentina’s vineyards are rarely afflicted by insects, moulds and fungi. Argentina’s growing conditions are, and have always been extremely clean and pure, therefore making the transition to producing organic wines a very simple one.

Wine experts around the world regard Argentina as a sleeping giant which is now beginning to awaken. It is the world's fifth-largest wine producer (after France, Italy, Spain and the U.S.) but is still a mystery to most wine connoisseurs. The reason that Argentinian wines rarely made it outside of Argentina is that until, the mid-1990’s, Argentinians consumed most of their domestically produced wines. The country had (and still has) one of the largest per capita rates of consumption in the world. Changing tastes and a downturn in the national economy shifted the focus to the export market and huge investments were made to modernise wine production. The results are evident in the quality of Argentinian wines and the ever-growing export success.

Basis for this starter page: Argentina wines site.