Argentina

Question 1

How much wine did Argentina produce in 2013?

Answer 1

15 million hectolitres.

Question 2

Where is Argentina in the ranking of countries by volume of production?

Answer 2

6th.

Question 3

How much Argentinian wine is exported?

Answer 3

Nearly a quarter.

Question 4

What percentages of Argentinian vineyards were planted with high quality grapes in 1990 and 2012?

Answer 4

37.5%; 66%.

Question 5

What are Argentina’s two famous pink-skinned grape varieties?

Answer 5

Criollas

Cereza

Question 6

How did early grape growing in South America differ from that in North America?

Answer 6

S America dependent on imported European vinifera vines.

Question 7

Where did early vines imported to Argentina come from?

Answer 7

Spain, Peru and Chile.

Question 8

When did vines arrive in Argentina?

Answer 8

1550s.

Question 9

When did Philip II ban the production of wine in Central and S America by anybody other than the Church?

Answer 9

1595.

Question 10

Who led the search for wine quality in Argentina from the end of the 16th century to the start of the 19th?

Answer 10

The monasteries.

Question 11

Describe development of Argentinian wine industry before independence.

Answer 11

• wine became the main economic activity;
• richest families of Cuyo and NW Argentina engaged in wine production either secularly or through clergy relations or both;
• export routes to Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Santa Fe, Bolivia and Chile developed;
• developed a dynamic proto-bourgeoisie, particularly in the Cuyo region;
• fortifying and heating of wine to enable it to go 45 days by cart;
• oak (instead of clay) fermentation vessels from 1740;
• 1767 Jesuits expelled and their estates seized by the Spanish crown;
• civil war in much of early 19th century damaged wine industry;
• 1820 glass bottles introduced.

Question 12

Which varieties were imported to Argentina in 19th century?

Answer 12

Malbec
Torrontés
and others

Question 13

What happened in Argentina in 1885?

Answer 13

The railway between Buenos Aires and Mendoza was finished; to the advantage of the vineyards in the foothills of the Andes.

Question 14

Other 19th century developments.

Answer 14

• immigrants brought new varieties;
• immigrants, many from wine making areas of Italy, Spain and France, brought wine production skills;
• immigrants were great wine drinkers and this helped develop domestic market (today 75% is drunk by Argentinians);
• by early 20th century Argentina 7th richest nation in the world (per capita presumably?).

Question 15

Figure for domestic wine consumption per head in Argentina.

Answer 15

1960s and early 1970s 90 litres per head;
1996 41 litres;
2015 about 25 litres.

Question 16

20th century in Argentina.

Answer 16

Inflation and economic decline;
military regimes;
democracy from 1983.
Decision by some producers to go upmarket in the late 1980s.
Big wine-pull scheme in 1980s before the move upmarket - lots of decent Malbec ripped out.

Question 17

21st century in Argentina.

Answer 17

2001/2 300% devaluation of the peso - great opportunity for wine exporters.

Question 18

Where are most vineyards found in Argentina?

Answer 18

The western strip of the country bordering the Andes foothills.

Question 19

What is the climate in the Andes foothills?

Answer 19

Continental - 4 seasons clearly defined.