Argentina
A country of excellent wines
The Argentine wine was born at the time of colonization. From 1543 they were introduced in Argentina and extended to the center, west and northwest of the country. In 1556 the Jesuits arrived in Santiago del Estero and made important vineyard plantations that were related to the spread of Christianity because the clergy needed wine for mass. In 1853 the governor of Cuyo Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, hired the French agronomist Michel Aimé Pouget who was in charge of reproducing the first grape wines of French varieties, among them the Malbec that for most winemakers, sommeliers and specialists, was adapted to this area better than anywhere else in the world. The big change began when the laws of water and land allowed the growth of colonization and with the contribution of immigrants who knew very well the techniques of production and cultivation of fine grapes began a time of oenological innovations.
What were those wines like?
Until the 19th century, the harvests were late to produce wines of high alcohol content and at the end of the fermentation of the must it was added to the “cocido”, that is, a fraction of virgin must was cooked by direct fire to strengthen them. As the Cuyo wine market was the littoral and Buenos Aires, the wine was transported in carts that took months to arrive and only alcoholic wines fortified with the stew could tolerate the distance, especially in summer.
The big change
After the First World War the Argentine wines were acquiring quality and the grape wines brought from France, Italy and Spain gave excellent results in a soil and climate that, without doubt, were ideal for the cultivation of the vine. Already by 1960, there was an annual consumption of 90 liters per person per year.
The modernization
This stage was characterized by the import of stainless steel to replace the concrete pools, the oak barrels and new bottling and labeling lines. In recent years, and despite the difficult economic situation of the country, the wine industry has been experiencing a positive development in all aspects both in the domestic market and abroad and since then Argentine wines began to be in restaurants and wine bars of the most important cities in the world.