Argentina

Argentina is the world's fifth-largest wine producer, and for 200 years the Spanish, the Italians and, more recently, the French, have been making wine there. However, a per capita domestic annual consumption of 90 litres had long prevented Argentinean wineries from looking beyond its country's boundaries.

Now, with a rash of high-quality plantings of interesting varieties such as Malbec, Cabernet, Bonarda, Tempranillo, Torrontes and Sangiovese, together with a host of fine home and foreign winemaking talent who are heavily investing their time and money, Argentina's potential is being unlocked.

Its ever growing presence in both the on and off trade is thanks to great producers such as the Cassone family, who first arrived in Argentina from Piedmont in the 19th Century. Their enthusiasm, investment and top class 90-year-old vineyards, situated in the prime Drummond area of Luján de Cuyo in Southwest Mendoza, 950 metres above sea level, has resulted in wonderfully rich, ripe wines of complexity and substance that could be considered to be some of Argentina's true flag-bearers.