Argentina has built up a world-class wine industry, luring a flood of wine tourists, but boosting the quality quotient is still keeping its winemakers hard at work.
The century-old industry, with its heart in the Mendoza area in the southwest, has dramatically increased the volume of production in the past two decades and a few of Argentina's top malbec-based reds have drawn rave reviews worldwide.
"In the broad scheme of everything going on with wine around the world, we have a long way to go," says Martin Castro, who runs a vineyard in the Valle de Uco area in Mendoza, a parched, sunny province abutting the Andes.
"On top-end wines, we still have work to do to compete globally. But we definitely have a presence with malbec, which is well known," Castro stresses, referring to the variety used as a base grape in many meat-friendly local reds, one that used to be common in Bordeaux.
Argentina has become the world's number five producer, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV). Meanwhile, it is the world's ninth ranked exporter and a big domestic consumer, the Argentine Wine Clearinghouse (OVA) says.
Castro and his partner Cristian Allamand, an agricultural engineer, are among those riding the wave. They oversee production at Bodegas Luminis, which in recent years has enjoyed phenomenal growth.