Did you know that ARGENTINA… …inspired Saint-Exupéry for various scenes in his famous story of the Little Prince? …has more theaters in Buenos Aires than there are in NY? …has 55.000.000 cows (and 40.301.927 inhabitants)? …has a Maradona church, the “Iglesia Maradoniana”? And that ARGENTINA IS THE FIFTH LARGEST WINE PRODUCING COUNTRY IN THE WORLD? Behind France, Spain, Italy and the United States of America, Argentina is the 5th biggest wine producer in the world. There are 220.000 hectares of vineyards planted throughout the 8 wine producing provinces from north to south: Salta, La Rioja, Catamarca, La Pampa, San Juan, Mendoza, Rio Negro and Neuquén. All in all, 15,5 million hl of wine are produced in 1280 Argentine wineries. The wine regions are situated between 22* and 40* latitude south. Within these 2000 km Argentina presents an amazing amount of different climate zones and microclimates which allow great diversity in respect to varietals, winemaking style and character of the wines. The vineyards are mostly orientated from South to North and lie at the foot of the Andes mountain range reaching from 300m to 2400m altitude. The soil consists to a great extent of stones, pebbles and sand, is rich in potassium and poor in nitrogen and organic material. The desert climate and the poor soil allow the grapes to reach excellent sanitary conditions. In addition, the geographical position lets them benefit from the remarkable thermal amplitude between day and night of about 20 degrees Celsius. Great sun exposure all year guarantees the expected ripeness of the tannins. In all wine regions, additional irrigation is necessary since the average rainfall is 200mm a year. Important is that all the different irrigation methods have one thing in common: the vines benefit from the purest water coming directly from the snow melt in the mountains. This system was inherited to them by the indigenous tribes living in the mountain area hundreds of years ago. It was the Huarpe indians who constructed the socalled “Acequias”, chanals, reaching from the Andes to the valley in order to be able to grow fruits and vegetables. For more than two generations now, Argentina has been realizing its hidden potential in winemaking and has been focusing on premium wine production ever since. The concept of high yields and mass production for which Argentina was famous until the 1980s has been replaced by this focus on high-quality wine production. Vines which produce grapes of lesser quality are being replaced with varieties of more enological value. Constant investigation, research and the will to improve have been and are the platform for constant growth in quality.