Lost in the Andes

Wine is sunlight, held together by water! ~ Galileo Gallilei

In the Southern hemisphere of a planet so infused with water that it is sometimes called Blue Planet lies one of life's little conundrums.  Towering along the Western coast of the Blue Planet's Southernmost Country are the Andes Mountains almost twice as high as our Rockies.  They so overshadow the landscape that not even the vast Pacific Ocean is able to deliver life's liquid gold to the their Continental side as rain.  And yet these same Andes gather this moisture in the form of glaciers and snow mass which it releases constantly year round to large aquifers and rivers ripe for irrigation.  Proving Galileo was right, wine makers from around  the world have gathered to harvest the abundant sunlight by binding it with water obtained from irrigation or pumping in a process where the humble grape does the yeomen's share of the work. 

As in most of the new World it was the 16^th century missionaries that first brought wine quality grapes to the Mendoza area.  In the 1800´s  the immigration of the large numbers of Italians to Mendoza brought modern wine making techniques and newly developed strains of Vinifera the wine industry which then began to flourish.  Later with the completion of the railroad, the Buenos Aires market was opened up to the talented immigrants who quenched this new thirst for  the fruit of the Vine.

Interestingly one of the biggest leaps forward for the industry was at the beginning of this century on the heals of the Money crisis and devaluation in 2001.  Argentina defaulted on huge loans thrust on them by Wall Street; there was a run on the banks; and many Argentinans were reduced to poverty as the job market dried up and the peso was devalued.  As harsh as this crisis was it made the Argentinan wines now affordable for export.  It also made the vineyards inexpensive for European and US wine makers looking to expand.  These wine makers brought the very latest in wine making technologies to Mendoza where it can now be said that it is state of the art.  Argentina is now among the largest exporters of wine in the world.

So just like the Andes that block the rains  but then deliver it in rivers and underground aquifers, Mendoza wines have benefited from the hard economic times that brought the country to its knees.

 "Wine gives strength to weary men."   ~ Homer