Wine Law

Argentina’s wine-growing area can be divided into three regions well defined in terms of their environmental conditions and the diversity of their soils: the Northwest, the Center-West and the South 12 . Argentina has the world’s highest vineyards and some of the most southern ones. Combined with its shallow soils and plenty of sunshine, this results in a great diversity of varieties and styles 13 . Red varieties such as Malbec – the Argentinean symbol –, Bonarda, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Tempranillo, and Pinot Noire, as well as some others, are used to produce high-quality wines. Some of the white varieties are the following: Chardonnay, Pedro Jiménez, Sauvignon, Chenin, Torrontés riojano, Ugni blanc and Semillón. Rosé Varieties such as Criolla Grande, Cherry and Rosé Muscatel are mostly used for concentrated must production 14 . In the late nineties it became an important subject of interest to developing the tourism activity in wineries. This development was encouraged by the fact that the change in the wine industry in those years generated that Argentinean wines started to go abroad and gain some good reputation. Because of the level of technology that was being used in marketing, consumers were interested in finding out where those wines were produced, so winemakers began to live with this type of tourism that came to the wineries on their own to find out where the labels came from and how the winemaking processes 15 are carried out. In this context, most traditional wineries of historical and heritage importance were able to adopt their spaces to meet this rising tourist demand. The most important foreign markets for Argentine wine are United States of America, Canada, Brazil, Chile, United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy. But a special highlight was the distinction of Mendoza in the “Great Wine Capitals”, a network that concentrates wine producing cities worldwide. To be there, a city must fulfill tourism and tourist quality standards, and Mendoza shares the award together with Adelaide (Australia), Bilbao/Rioja (Spain), Bordeaux (France), 12 Pandolfi, Cristina y Cuello, Irma in “Reseña de la vitivinicultura argentina”, available in: www.acenologia.com. 13 Source : https://winifera.com/argentina-vitivin%C3%ADcola-44c61c35476f. 14 Pandolfi, C y Cuello, I, op . cit . 15 Source: https://panamericanworld.com/revista/viajes-y-cultura/enoturismo-tesoro-preciado-del- turismo-en-argentina/.