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Wine Regions
The Andean North West is something else, the conditions and varieties are unique.
Taking-in the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca and La Rioja, which gave
boundaries with Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay, the vast region has the Tropic
of Capricorn as its central point. This is definitely not the normal place to
grow grapes for fine wine making. The elevation and proximity to the world's
greatest mountain range is what makes fine wine possible. The vineyard with
the lowest elevation in the region would exceed the highest vineyard in Australia.
Just imagine the climate al 1,900 meters, nearly three times the height of Australia's
highest!
Currently the Cuyo is Argentina's brightest star; all the money and muscle is
there. Stretching from San Juan province to the Colorado River, this firmly
established area has the benefit of several fine Enology schools and an INTA
research station which has its own dedicated vitivinicultural researchers.
There are many splendid areas and positive people doing good things in the Cuyo
but one has the feeling that the vision of Argentina's potential is limited.
Although new and better areas are being established within the Cuyo for fine
wines, no-one is looking to the south for another source of complex grapes.
The south, as mentioned elsewhere, is a foreign country within a country but
the potential to produce grapes of the highest quality is as certain as any
place on earth. Great wines are made from superb weather conditions; not an
annual occurrence. At most, they may happen only four or five times each decade.
Most find this hard to understand.
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