Fine high desert wines: Argentine winegrowers blend tradition and technology on the Andean slopes of Mendoza.

• Author: Footer, Kevin Carrel

Any Argentine winegrower wanting to count his blessings need only look up. "There," says winegrower Enrique Toso, pointing to the Andes towering behind his vineyards, "That's the source of our climate and our water."

But the blessings that the Andes bestow on Argentina's vineyards include more than pristine water, dry mountain air, and a desert climate with hot days and cold nights; they also include the organically poor soil of crushed rock (an advantage in winegrowing) and altitude variations that play a decisive role in making Mendoza province, according to Wine Spectator magazine, "one of the world's most distinctive wine regions."

Argentina's wine industry is extensive, with 490,000 acres under vine. The heart and soul of the wine country, Mendoza is home to four hundred of the country's six hundred wineries and source of 70 percent of the country's wine production.

And during the past decade, a revolution of sorts has been occurring on the eastern slopes of the Andes. Despite its natural advantages, the Argentine wine industry had grown lethargic and inward looking since its founding 150 years ago, content to satisfy the needs of a domestic market that drank copious amounts of low-quality table wine with their asados. No more. Argentines, like wine drinkers around the world, are demanding quality.

But transforming old wineries and vineyards into world-class competitors is expensive. Conveniently, during the 1990s, many international firms were looking to invest in Argentina, attracted by its privileged terroir (a French term that winegrowers use for the unique combination of soil, climate, water, and other conditions that distinguish a region from another). Finns such as Seagrams, Allied Domecq, and Pernod Ricard quickly snapped up existing Argentine wineries, while other firms such as Kendall-Jackson from the U.S. and Chile's Concha y Toro started wineries from scratch. Still others such as Moet & Chandon expanded their holdings in Argentina. Recognizing Mendoza's great potential, they have imported the latest equipment, overhauled production methods, and brought along their well-oiled access to international markets where Argentine wines remain largely unknown.

While many of Argentina's traditional winegrowing families have sold out (or been outclassed), some have held onto theft wineries and set their sights on making world-class wines. Like theft new international neighbors (and competitors), they also have invested in stainless-steel tanks, international experts, and computer controls. But they are also betting that their 150 years of experience making wine on the eastern slopes of the Andes, a legacy passed down from their ancestors who founded the first important wineries in Mendoza, will allow them to fuse proud traditions and sentiment with modern technology and produce wines with a distinctly Argentine character.

Though the first vines were...