MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine wine industry receives more than US$1.5B

The wineries tucked beneath the distant Andean mountains nearly have it all: warm days and cool nights for growing the lushest of grapes, state of the art technology and vintners bent on lifting Argentina's wine production to rival the best.

Australia, France, the United States and even neighbouring Chile still far outpace the Argentines, but more than US$1.5 billion in investments this decade to overhaul wineries and lift standards ? coupled with a tightly focused marketing campaign ? are producing a big buzz about this country's up-and-coming grapes.

Argentina exported nearly US$400 million in wines and grape juice concentrates to more than 70 countries in 2005, the second record year in a row after surpassing US$305 million in exports in 2004, the country's Institute of Wine reported.

Now nearly 900 wineries in leafy vineyards all around Mendoza and more than 300 wineries elsewhere in the country are exploring ways to combine new wine blends for an increasingly demanding audience of wine imbibers the world over.

They are also fine-tuning existing flagship reds like the prominent Malbec wine, a variety brought by European immigrants in the 1880s that put Argentina on the winemaking map years ago. And they are talking of ramping up bigger export numbers in 2006, principally to the key US and European markets, but also Africa and Asia.

In the early '90s, Argentina threw open a state-oriented economy to globalization, forcing traditional winemakers to seek new markets abroad.

Now dozens of entrepreneurial winemakers like Walter Bressia, 49, along with large traditional wineries and vintners from as far as France and Spain, are all revitalizing Argentina's grapes. Many are overhauling old vineyards by planting new varieties, improving irrigation and harvesting techniques, and upgrading fermenting, aging and bottling methods.

Quality winemakers are fast erasing last century's image of Argentine wineries as sleepy ventures producing unadventurous and often overripe table wines dished up to a large but captive domestic market (BAH)