When it comes to wine, Argentina is the world's fifth largest producer after Italy, France, Spain and the USA and has one of the fastest growing wine industries on the globe.
Around 450 years ago, early Spanish conquistadores planted the first vineyards in Argentina to make wines for the celebration of Mass. They inaugurated a long history of winemaking (and drinking) in Argentina, probably the oldest winemaking country of the New World.
A few years later, in 1816, Argentina declared its independence. Spanish rule had ended, but the tradition continued to grow: locals had already developed a taste
for wine, and it was no longer consumed solely at church on Sundays.
Subsequent immigration also contributed to the potential of this land's current wine scene. Argentina now boasts one of the world's widest ranges of available grape varieties largely because settlers brought rootstocks from their original homes in France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Germany, to name a few. Two of the most important varieties today are Torrontés, the favourite indigenous white grape of Argentina, and the champion of our wine revolution, Malbec, an old and little-known French cépage that flourishes in the high-altitude terroirs in the foothills of the majestic Andes.
