Argentina's white secret

Thousands of Hong Kong wine-lovers have probably appreciatively sipped white wines from Bodegas Trapiche. But ask if they enjoy Argentinian whites, and they will look at you with astonishment. 'Never tried them,' they will claim.

Not knowingly, perhaps. But a number of deluxe hotels and prominent restaurants are now serving two whites from the Mendoza region of Argentina as house wines. So chances are high the light, fruity wine you enjoyed with your fish was a 98 Vieja Abadia made of chenin blanc grapes grown on the plains of Mendoza.

Force 8 Cellars (fax: 2527 6255) sells a full range of Trapiche wines. Alas, that chenin which goes down so nicely when it is well chilled, is not on open sale in shops.

That's because restaurants like to stock wines which don't appear on supermarket shelves.

There are plenty of other Trapiche labels to choose from, however. The regional sales manager of the firm, Paula Lede, was recently in Hong Kong and she tells me the parent company of Trapiche, a wine combine named Penaflor, last year produced 216 million bottles.

A lot of the wine is sold in casks to thirsty Argentinians, but one of the features of the huge wine industry of that country is how large firms like Trapiche can produce enormous quantities of wine, while preserving top quality in their upper-market brands.

This dedication to quality goes back to 1883 when a local politician in Mendoza, Tiburcio Benegas, vowed to make excellent wine. He started by importing clippings of classical French grapes.