Winemaking in Argentina

In recent years Argentina's wine industry has changed its production philosophy. Quality now trumps quantity, producing splendid results. Argentina is the 5th largest wine producer in the world, but up to 90% of its wine is consumed internally. In the last 10 years, nearly 1.5 billion US dollars have been invested in the Argentine wine industry, some of this has been in the form of land and winery purchases by foreign wineries, much of it has been in the upgrading of equipment and production methods.

Argentina's wine industry is over 400 years old, with the first recorded vineyard having been planted in 1557 and the first commercial vineyards having been established in the 20 years between the late 1560's and 1580's. With freedom from Spain having been achieved by 1820 and the subsequent influx of European immigrants Argentina's wine industry really became much more active. The European influx included many people from the Italian, Spanish and French wine growing who brought with them not only their techniques but also their vines.

Big Vintage has established a number of exclusive relationships with the vineyards in the Mendoza region of Argentina. (View map)
 

Winemaking in France

Though the second half of the 20th century has shown a decline in the consumption of wine in France, it remains the country that produces the largest quantity of fine wine in the world. Nowhere in the world is wine embedded in the local culture the way it is in France. In the same way that wine influences French culture, French grapes have influenced world wines.

The history of grapes in France dates back to Greek settlement of Marseille in 600BC and evolved hand in hand with the affinity that the Celts developed for wine as well as the interaction that other cultures and nations have had with what is now France over the last 2000 years.

It is said that in France there are as many wines as there are vineyards, which may be true, but it does have more wine growing regions than any other country. Big Vintage works with vineyards in the regions of Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Burgundy and Loire. (View map)
 

Winemaking in Italy

People often associate central and northern Italy with winemaking, but most years Sicily produces more wine than any other region of Italy, with Apulia (the "heel" of the Italian boot) sometimes surpassing Sicilian production. Sicily is geographically the largest of Italy's twenty regions, and one of the most populated.

Into the 1990s, even more wineries evolved from being bulk suppliers for the Marsala makers or northern vintners to striking out on their own to produce high-quality wines under their own names. This meant that they had to confront the challenge of advertising and marketing, but European Union subsidies softened the financial blow of this expense. It also meant that they had to consult, or hire, professional oenologists if they were to produce fine vintage wines instead of the economical bulk wines that Grandfather had made. In a society decidedly geriatric and male, a new way of thinking was needed. Unlike their conservative, if not reactionary, parents and grandparents, many of the "new" vintners are from a newer generation now in their 40s, if not younger. A few even speak passable English --still a rarity in Sicily. It's a welcome change and a good sign of things to come.

Indeed, the Sicilian wine renaissance is one of the hottest topics on the international wine scene in recent years. (View map)