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Argentina as a Wine Nation
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Argentina is a country that covers more than 3.5million squared km, allowing dramatic geographic and climatic changes from East to West and from North to South. The country’s natural characteristics range from arid mountains to plateaus, deserts riddled with sand dunes and oases to glaciers, canyons to fertile valleys and wetlands.
Argentina ranks 5th in the world in terms of total wine production. The country’s vineyards are spread from North to South, however the most important viticulture region can be found largely within the West, following the Andes mountain range down from Salta (25° south latitude) to Rio Negro in Patagonia (39° south latitude). The altitude between these regions ranges from 450 meters to more than 2000 meters above sea-level. The most prominent characteristics of the viticulture regions of Argentina are located in arid regions with warm climates, well-defined winters, high sun radiation and large temperature fluctuations of up to 15ºC (annual mean temperature varies between 13.8ºC and 18.3ºC). On the whole, the annual rainfall within the viticulture region (known as "Cuyo") is not sufficient, requiring the use of irrigation in the form of river water or underground water to meet the demand.
Mendoza is renowned as the biggest and best region for wine growing largely because of its continental-dry climate with few extremes, the natural availability of irrigation from the melting snow of the Andes mountains and the loose, sandy, alluvial type soil with clay substructure, allowing a perfect nesting ground for your vines to mature to their full potential
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