My brother and I in Mendoza / Mi hermano y yo en Mendoza

Two weeks ago my brother Ned came down to visit me in Argentina, and after a few deathly hot days in Buenos Aires we headed to the "interior" of the country. After stopping in Rio Tercero, Cordoba to visit some friends and relatives there, we took an 8 hour bus ride to Mendoza. As a big mountain biking fan, my brother wanted to head to the Andes one day and then hit up the wineries on Tuesday.

Hace dos semanas mi hermano Ned vino a visitarme en la Argentina, y después de algunos días calurosos en Buenos Aires fuimos al interior del país. Después de una visita a Río Tercero, Córdoba para ver nuestros parientes y algunos amigos, tomamos un bus a Mendoza. Mi hermano es un fanático del mountain bike (aunque su trabajo como un abogado en Manhattan no es exactamente perfecto para su interés) y quería visitar algunas bodegas.

On Monday, we went to the Andes, or more specifically the "pre-mountain range" to do some mountain biking at a place I’d been to twice before, once for rafting the year before and once for mountain biking in October. Needless to say, it was awesome.

El lunes fuimos a los Andes, o mejor dicho, la “pre-cordillera” para hacer mountain bike en un lugar que había ido dos veces antes, una vez para rafting hace un año y una vez para mountain bike en Octubre. La visita fue absolutamente espectacular.



On Tuesday we hired a driver to take us to several wineries. We first went to La Rural (which I had been to last year), which is nice because it is a very typical Mendoza winery in that it was started in the 1890s by Italian immigrants. What is different about La Rural is that it has an excellent wine museum. After La Rural we drove to Familia Zuccardi, a very well-known winery (at least in Argentina) which is completely the opposite of La Rural in that it was started in the 1970s and likes to be known as an innovator. The incredible asado (Argentine barbecue) we had at Zuccardi definitely makes it worth another visit.

El martes contractamos un chofer para llevarnos a algunas bodegas. Primero fuimos a La Rural (visité La Rural en 2005) que es muy bueno porque es una bodega típica de Mendoza porque fue fundado por un inmigrante italiano en los años 1890. Después de la visita a La Rural, fuimos a la bodega Familia Zuccardi, una bodega muy conocida (en la Argentina) que es el opuesto de La Rural porque fue fundado en los años 1970 y es conocido por su innovación con nuevos varietales. El asado increíble que comimos en Zuccardo vale la pena para otra visita.

At Zuccardi, we were assigned a personal tour guide who showed us the process in making the wine. After the short tour we got to try several wines directly from the tank. It was just an absolutely awesome experience, we have to give major props to our guide Matias (in the picture below) for giving such a comprehensive tour.

En Zuccardi, caminamos por la bodega en un tur guiada que nos mostró el proceso de hacer el vino. Después del tur tuvimos la oportunidad de probar vinos distintos directamente de los tanques de acero. Fue una experiencia absolutamente espectacular y tenemos que decir “muchas gracias” a Matías (en el foto) por darnos un tur tan extenso.

Back to blogging? Un regreso a blogear?

Well, my only one of my New Year's resolutions was to “blog” more, in the true sense of the term. This blog was created to be a record of my research on the Argentine wine industry. Now that I know a lot about some about the industry, I think I might be qualified in some sense to “blog” about it.

So here we go. This is a good example of an article that pops up in the U.S. every couple weeks or so. “When giving wine, look south for bargains, innovations.” Paul Alexander. The Associated Press. December 30, 2006.

The link leads you to the Green Bay (Wisconsin) Press Gazette which is one of many local newspapers that chose to print the article. In the article, the journalist basically lumps in all of the “Southern Hemisphere” wines, which are all of the “New World” wines with the exception of the U.S.

One quote drew my attention, however. It quotes Ray Isle, a senior editor at Food & Wine magazine as saying that Argentina is “…one of my favorite bargain wines.” Hmm. I think Wines of Argentina would rather go with, “wines that have an excellent quality to price ratio.” But they won’t complain about the free publicity.

One more thought: the article labels all of the southern hemisphere wine making regions into one specialty. Argentina has its Malbec, Australia and South Africa with shiraz, and New Zealand with sauvignon blancs and pinot noirs. Certainly from a marketing standpoint Argentina has chosen to live and die by Malbec, but when will people start discovering more of their other very tasty varietals such as torrontes?

Bueno, acá en los Estados Unidos (si, regresé a mi país madre la semana pasada – ¡que frío!) tenemos una tradición de hacer una lista chica de cosas que queremos lograr en el año nuevo. Unos de mis deseos es blogear más. Este blog fue creado para ser un registro de mis investigaciones sobre el crecimiento de la industria argentina durante los 15 años pasados. Ahora que sé mucho algo sobre la industria, creo que soy cualificado, en un sentido, para blogear sobre el tema.

Ok, ¡vamos! Este articulo es un ejemplo bueno de los artículos sobre vino que aparecen en en los EEUU cada cierto tiempo. “When giving wine, look south for bargains, innovations.” Paul Alexander. The Associated Press. December 30, 2006. (en ingles).

El enlace te lleva al Green Bay (Wisconsin, EEUU) Press Gazette que es unos de los varios periódicos locales que decidió publicar el articulo. En el artículo el periodista agrupa los vinos del hemisferico sur, que son todos los vinos del “nuevo mundo” excepto los vinos norteamericanos.

Una cita del artículo me llamó mi atención, sin embargo. Cita Ray Isle, un editor mayor de la revista “Food and Wine” diciendo que Argentina es, “…unos de mis vinos favoritos que es barato” (mi traducción). Creo que Bodegas de Argentina prefiría la frase, “vinos que tiene una muy buena relación de calidad a precio.” Pero ellos no van a quejar sobre la publicidad gratis.

Una reflexión más: el artículo vincula cada región con un vino especial. Argentina con Malbec, Australia y Sur Africa con Shiraz, y Nueva Zelandia con sauvignon blancs y pinot noirs. Es cierto que desde la punta de vista de marketing, la Argentina decidió a “vivir o morir” con el Malbec, pero quiero saber cuando el resto del mundo va a descubrir el resto de sus varietales como torrontes.

Bibliography

1. “Censo Nacional Agropecuario.” INDEC. Buenos Aires, Argentina: 2002.
2. “Invertir en Argentina: Vino.” Agencia de Desarrollo de Inversiones. Buenos Aires: 2006.
3. “Sector Vino.” In “Panorama Sectorial.” April, 2006. Found in Ministerio de Economía. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
4. Aciar, Alfredo. Interview by author. Mp3 recording. Mendoza City, Mendoza, Argentina 9 2006.
5. Azpiazu, Daniel, Basualdo, Eduardo. “Las modificaciones técnicas y de propiedad en el complejo vitivinícola argentino durante los años noventa.” Revista Interdisciplinaria de Estudios Agrarios 17 (2002): 5-36.
6. Bouzas, Roberto. “¿Mas allá de la estabilización y la reforma? Un ensayo sobre la economía argentina a comienzos de los ’90.” Desarrollo Económico, Vol. 33 No. 129. pp. 3-28.
7. Darwin, Charles. Journal of Researches, new ed. (London: John Murray, 1890)
8. McDermott, Gerald A., “The Politics of Institutional Renovation and Economic Upgrading: Recombining the Vines that Bind in Argentina.” October, 2006. Forthcoming in Politics and Society. Found at: http://www-management.wharton.upenn.edu/mcdermott/files/McDermott-PS-10-06.pdf.
9. McDermott, Gerald A., “The Politics of Institutional Renovation and Economic Upgrading: Lessons from the Argentine Wine Industry.” Unpublished Version 3 (November 2005).
10. Neiman, Guillermo, Bocco, Adriana, Martín, Clara. “Tradicional y Moderno. Una aproximación a los cambios cuantitativos y cualitativos de la demanda de mano de obra en el cultivo de vid.” In Trabajo de campo, edited by Guillermo Neiman, 175-200. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Ciccus, year unknown.
11. Pina, Juan Carlos. Interview by author. Mp3 recording. Mendoza City, Mendoza, Argentina 12 October 2006.
12. Richard-Jorba, Richard, et al., La región vitivinícola argentina. Buenos Aires: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, 2006.
13. Richard-Jorba, Rodolfo. Interview by author. Mp3 recording. Mendoza City, Mendoza, Argentina, 10 October 2006.
14. Sawers, Larry. The Other Argentina. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996.
15. Scobie, James R., “Argentina: Patterns of Urbanization in Argentina, 1869-1914.” Latin American Research Review, Vol. 10, No. 2. (Summer, 1975), pp. 132-134. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0023-8791%28197522%2910%3A2%3C132%3AAPOUIA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7
16. Toso, Enrique. Interview by author. Mp3 recording. Mendoza City, Mendoza, Argentina, 13 October 2006.
17. Unknown. “Making a Case for the Argentine Wine Industry.” Knowledge@Wharton (January 22, 2004), http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=904.

Conclusion

From a broad prospective, the “hands-on” approach favored by the Mendoza government has certainly had its positive and negative. However, after the oversupply crisis of the 1980s, it seems as if they have learned from prior mistakes of overregulation and limited responsibility. In fact, the government’s participation in the industry is vital for continued growth.

The future of the wine industry in Mendoza is favorable. In every area, with the exception of table wine, the wine industry is growing at a healthy pace. In fact, wine has become one of the top exports for the country. With the stable framework the industry has put in place, with institutions such as ProMendoza and COVIAR, the industry appears to be on the right track for long-term growth.

State Policies

In 1996, Fundación ProMendoza was founded as a state-financed but privately managed foundation to promote products from Mendoza in the international markets. ProMendoza officially has four members: the provincial government, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Stock Exchange and the Economic Federation of Mendoza. The provincial government finances about 70% of ProMendoza’s operations, but only retains 25% of the decision-making power. ProMendoza funds promotional exhibitions throughout the world, which might include a tasting stand at a wine fair in San Francisco or representing organic producers at a conference in Germany on emerging technology in organic farming.

The growth of the private-public sector linkages such as ProMendoza is interesting due to the timing of their growth in popularity. The prevailing economic theory in Argentina during the 1990s argued for less government involvement in the market. Running counter to this trend, the provincial government in Mendoza took the lead in bringing together several different sectors under one organization.(Source Figure 3: National Institute for Viticulture)

In 1995, the governments of Mendoza and San Juan reached an agreement to decide annually how much of each year’s grape harvest must be used for concentrated grape juice and not used for wine. The agreement was a way to diversify grape production and maintain stable grape prices. Typically the two governments agree that about 25% to 30% of each year’s harvest must be made into concentrated grape juice. This juice is almost exclusively exported and is used as a sugar concentrate in such products as soft drinks. For the past ten years, the agreement has worked extremely favorably for the two provinces, with the majority of concentrate sold to the U.S. Argentina is currently the number one producer of sugar concentrate in the world.

In addition, the province offers a significant amount of protection from hail storms that often pass through Mendoza, which can destroy 12% of a year’s crop in five minutes. In the San Rafael region of Mendoza, it is well-known that there is a 1 in 8 chance that your crops will be destroyed by hail. The province pays for planes to fly over potential hail-storm clouds, releasing a chemical that breaks up the forming hail in the clouds. Secondly, many winemakers use small nets to put over the vines to protect against the hail. The government pays a large part of the interest rate when the winemakers borrow from a bank to install the protective nets. A normal loan would have an interest rate of about 15%, but with the government subsidy the winemaker pays only 5% interest. The third way the government protects against hail is by paying minimal insurance premiums to take out policies against hail.

Alfredo Aciar, Chief of Cabinet in the Mendoza Province Economic Ministry states, “The market alone can’t fix issues and we are aware of this problem.” In 2005, the government purchased a large supply of grapes to be destroyed in order to maintain stable prices. The Economic Ministry has calculated that there is an overproduction crisis every six years, and 2006 was set to be the year for the next crisis.

In December of 2003, the law entitled the “Strategic Plan for the Argentine Wine Industry 2020” (Plan Estratégico Argentina Vitivinícola 2020 or PEVI) was passed in the national legislature to institute on a national level the pro-export marketing model of Mendoza. Plan 2020 called for Argentina to achieve a 20% share of the world wine market by 2020. Currently, Argentina enjoys about 2% of the international wine market. The body created to oversee PEVI, Corporación Vitivinicultura Argentina (COVIAR), is based in Mendoza and seeks to promote Argentina wine abroad, although it has recently taken on a domestic marketing plan as well.

Although the growth of the wine industry in Mendoza was largely due to the growth of exports, domestic consumption of fine wine began to increase in the 1990s for the first time in decades. Following Argentina’s default on foreign debt in 2001 which subsequently ended the one-to-one exchange rate, Argentina and Mendoza specifically have seen an explosion in tourism. Mendoza is the second-most visited tourist destination in Argentina, behind only Buenos Aires. The tourism boom has grown peripheral industries that are almost worth as much as the wine industry itself. In fact, it is estimated that the peripheral industries to wine – tourism, oenologists, consultants, engineers – is worth about $1 billion dollars to the province of Mendoza.

National Economic Policy and its Influence in Mendoza

The Fecovita cooperative marked the beginning of a state-led policy of allowing private actors to manage public-private organizations which are heavily financed by the state. The growth of such public-private programs came during a pro free-market regime in Buenos Aires. President Carlos Menem and Economic Minister Domingo Cavallo sought to end inflation by instituting the Convertibility Plan that pegged the peso to the dollar in 1991. Inflation was practically reduced to zero while Menem and Cavallo advanced their neoliberal policies that mirrored the Washington Consensus. One main feature of the Menem/Cavallo plan was the reduction of government intervention in the markets. These policies relegated the INV to the diminished role of monitoring the quality of wine without any say in the quantity or price of the grapes produced. However, the Convertibility Plan arguably had a much more profound impact on the industry than many of the other neoliberal policies.

By pegging the peso to the dollar the Convertibility Plan affected the wine industry in two key ways. First, the wine industry was able to import technology from abroad. With better machinery and more advanced technology, the industry upgraded itself to international standards. Moreover, previously prohibitively expensive human capital from abroad was attracted to Argentina. For example, winery Pascual Toso hired a Napa Valley consultant to visit its winery ten times per year. Even world renowned wine consultant Michel Rolland came to Mendoza to analyze several different wines. Under the weak peso, no winery was ever able to afford such an expense. This quality improvement opened the possibility of exporting Argentine wine to sophisticated wine markets like the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. On the other hand, the peso to dollar ratio offered a steady economic climate for foreign investors. Unlike the late 1980s when hyperinflation created a chaotic investment environment, the Convertibility Plan attracted large amounts of foreign direct investment. With the new technology from abroad and foreign investment, the government worked to create strong linkages between interests within the industry.

A New State-led Initiative

A symbol of the 1980s crisis was the Giol Vineyard (Bodegas y Viñedos Giol Sociedad del Estado) in Mendoza. Giol was founded at the end of the 19th century by Italian and Swiss immigrants and was expropriated to the state during the 1950s in order to regulate the market. By 1987, Giol was operating at a 500,000 USD loss per month and had a debt of over 35 million USD. Yet it still produced 10% of Argentina’s wine and bought grapes from more than 4,000 small and medium sized grape growers in Mendoza. The provincial Mendoza government, wary of the privatization of the state-owned winery Cavic in San Juan, chose to use a “participatory restructuring approach”. This approach meant transforming Giol into a cooperative among several sectors as a way to encourage restructuring among the different factions that had an interest in the winery, namely large business interests, labor unions, and communities of thousands of grape suppliers.

The new cooperative, named Fecovita, had enormous success and eventually earned a profit. It was instrumental in helping its members gain access to credit, markets and training through increased bargaining power with and access to banks, domestic and international distributors, as well as public and private research institutions. As the state-organized cooperative, Fecovita started a trend in Mendoza with the provincial government developing over 75 programs related to the wine industry during the 1990s.

The Crisis of the 1980s

Indeed, several factors contributed to the crisis that the wine industry faced in the 1980s. The most important issue was the dramatic fall in domestic consumption of table wine. Table wine is defined as any wine that falls below the $3 peso retail price (about one US dollar). Oftentimes this wine comes in a cardboard box but can also be packaged in a bottle. Traditionally, Argentines mix this bargain priced wine with carbonated water to dilute the taste. On the production side, table wine is grown by small producers who usually have less than 5 hectares of cultivated land and use much less sophisticated technology in growing the grapes. Higher quality wines use grapes that oftentimes are grown using drip irrigation systems that deliver water directly to the vine using a small pipe. Because the table wine growers were of relatively modest means, the table wine grape growers in Mendoza didn’t have access to necessary capital to upgrade to complicated irrigation systems.

These low-quality wines suffered when beer and soda sales rose in the 1980s. In 1968, Argentines drank on average 86 liters a year of wine, while in 1986 that number had dropped to 60 liters per year. As a result, grape production in Mendoza fell by 60 percent between 1976 and 1993. As a result, during the 1980s one third of all producers went bankrupt and the number of hectares planted fell from 15,000 hectares to 3,000 hectares. This crisis, generated by a drop in domestic demand, created a need for the wine industry to look outside of Argentina for new markets. Capital controls imposed by the state and poor wine quality limited their efforts to sell any considerable amount of wine abroad as their counterparts on the other side of the Andes had been doing successfully. (Figure 1 Source: “Business Trends”. Economic Ministry of the Republic of Argentina. 2005. Soda consumption data found on p. 396. Wine consumption data. p. 401.)

Origins of the Wine Industry

During the mid-1800s the majority of agricultural land was used for alfalfa. Ranchers fed this alfalfa to cattle from the provinces of Cordoba and Santa Fe as the cattle were herded to Chile. By the mid 1880s, however, Mendoza found itself in the midst of an economic transformation due to the arrival of the railroad, rising agricultural production, and a steady influx of European immigrants. Additionally, winemaking technology improved so that the same amount of acreage that produced 46 kg of wine in 1870 yielded 250 kg at the end of the 1880s. The acreage in vines also increased six fold between 1893 and 1913. By World War I, vine acreage exceeded that of Chile and California. The improvement in technology and increase in overall acreage met a surging demand for wine from the growing immigrant population in the pampas region.

Government intervention in the wine industry virtually began at the industry’s inception. As a general rule, agricultural-based sectors were heavily affected by the government’s liberal, export-oriented economy during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The wine industry in Mendoza and the sugar industry in Tucumán paralleled one another in their rapid growth at the end of the 19th century. Both industries involved heavy state intervention which led to multiple overproduction crises during the 20th century.

In Mendoza’s case, the national government built the Andes Railroad in 1885, connecting the provinces of San Luis, Mendoza and San Juan with Buenos Aires, coastal markets, and the northern part of the country. The government also expanded and maintained the already extensive canal network. In addition to infrastructure, provincial laws in 1889, 1895, and 1902 exempted all grape production from taxes for the first five years of production. The province exercised excellent judgement in understanding that the demand for wine would one day yield high tax gains. Indeed, in 1907 over 60% of provincial revenue originated in the wine sector.

In addition to favorable subsidies, the federal government offered generous protection to the wine sector by imposing high import tariffs. Transport via ship from Europe to Buenos Aires remained cheaper than railroad transport from Mendoza, so the young wine industry sought protection from the well established industries in Europe. By 1914, the wine tariff had reached 80%. The federal government erected other barriers to trade ensuring no foreign wine could enter Argentina. Specifically, no wine could be imported from countries in which sugar was added to grape juice to increase the alcoholic content of the wine, even if the particular wine shipped to Argentina didn’t utilize this technique. Since this method was used in at the least one instance in every wine producing country, foreign wine was effectively prohibited from entering the market.

After thirty years of remarkable growth, the national government created the Junta Reguladora de Viños (JRV, or Wine Regulating Committee) in 1935 which would later become the Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura (INV) in 1959. Acting under the auspices of the JRV, the state attempted to deal with overproduction, especially during the Great Depression when wine consumption fell dramatically. The INV regulated when and how much the growers could plant, when the harvest was to occur and how much the grapes would sell for. On the production side, INV monitored quality and encouraged diversification. The state’s role in the wine industry in Mendoza would undergo dramatic changes in the 1980s in the midst of an oversupply crisis.

Winnowing the Vines - The Growth of the Mendoza, Argentina Wine Industry - Introduction

December 2006
Swarthmore College
Buenos Aires, Argentina

In 1835, Charles Darwin laid eyes upon the spectacular Andes Mountains that lay before him. At the foot of the jagged, snow-capped ridges lay a small town named Mendoza. To many travelers, Mendoza looked like a paradise after the rugged two-week trek across the pampas from the European metropolis of Buenos Aires. Experienced explorer Darwin thought otherwise, “To my mind the town has a stupid, forlorn aspect to it…but, to those who, coming from Buenos Ayres, have just crossed the unvaried pampas, the gardens and orchards must appear delightful.”

Today, the canals and contrasting flora remain the only aspects that from the Mendoza Darwin first experienced. Twenty-first century Mendoza is home to a multi-billion dollar wine industry and its world renowned Malbec red wine. Geographically Mendoza is located in the western region of Cuyo, bordered by the Andes Mountains and Chile in the west. It is known for its dry, hot summers and mild, yet humid winters. For centuries, the natives to Mendoza have utilized the rainwater and melting snow that flows off the Andes Mountains for hydroelectric power and irrigation.

This paper will explore the evolution of the wine industry in Mendoza since its initial growth in 1880, with particular emphasis on the past 15 years. Although special attention will be paid to the impact of government institutions in the province of Mendoza, economic and historical factors will be explored as well.

Many Thanks

I wish to express my gratitude to the Swarthmore Buenos Aires program and Swarthmore Foreign Study Office for facilitating this independent research project. In particular, I must thank Carlos Reboratti for his continual guidance throughout the research and editing phases. In addition, I am indebted to Diego Armus for the idea of researching the wine industry and Lucia de Leone for helping with the Spanish-language aspects of the project. Finally, I must thank Alfredo Aciar, Rodolfo Richard-Jorba, Gerald McDermott, Juan Carlos Pina and Enrique Toso for taking the time to offer their insight on the industry.

Origins of the Wine Industry

During the mid-1800s the majority of agricultural land was used for alfalfa, which fattened the cattle passing through from the provinces of Cordoba and Santa Fe en route to Chile. Yet, by the mid 1880s Mendoza found itself in the midst of an economic transformation due to the arrival of the railroad, rising agricultural production, and a steady influx of European immigrants (Scobie, p. 132). Winemaking technology was improving to extent that the same amount of acreage that produced 46 kg of wine in 1870 yielded 250 kg at the end of 1880. The acreage in vines also increased six fold between 1893 and 1913 and by World War I, vine acreage exceeded that of Chile and California (Sawer, p. 82). The improvement in technology and increase in overall acreage was able to meet a surging demand for wine from the growing immigrant population in the pampas region.

Government intervention in the wine industry virtually began at its inception. As a general rule, agricultural-based sectors were heavily influenced during the latter part of the nineteenth century, as the government pursued a liberal, export-oriented economy. The wine industry in Mendoza and the sugar industry in Tucumán seemed to parallel one another in their rapid growth at the end of the 19th century. Both involved heavy state intervention which led to multiple overproduction crises during the 20th century (Balan and Lopez, p. 392).
In Mendoza’s case, the national government built the Andes Railroad in 1885, connecting Villa Mercedes (San Luis), Mendoza and San Juan with Buenos Aires, coastal markets, and the northern part of the country. In addition to infrastructure, provincial laws in 1889, 1895, and 1902 exempted all grape production from taxes for the first five years of production. The province understood that the demand for wine would one day yield high tax gains, and indeed, in 1907 over 60% of provincial revenue originated in the wine sector (Richard-Jorba, p. 119).

On top of favorable subsidies, the federal government offered generous protection to the wine sector by imposing high import tariffs. Transport by ship from Europe to Buenos Aires was still cheaper than railroad transport from Mendoza, so the young wine industry sought protection from the well established industries in Europe (Sawer, p. 82). By 1914, the wine tariff had reached 80%. The federal government even erected barriers to trade ensuring no foreign wine could enter Argentina. Specifically, no wine could be imported from countries in which sugar was added to grape juice to increase the alcoholic content of the wine, even if the particular wine that was sent to Argentina didn’t use this technique. Since this method was used in at the least one instance in every wine producing country, foreign wine was effectively prohibited from entering the market (Sawer, p. 83).

After thirty years of remarkable growth, the national government created the Junta Reguladora de Viños (Wine Regulating Committee) in 1935 which would later become the Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura (INV) in 1959 (Footnote: The government did the same with the sugar and yerba mate industries). The state attempted to deal with overproduction, especially during the Great Depression when wine consumption fell dramatically. The INV regulated when and how much the growers could plant, when the harvest was to occur and how much the grapes would sell for. On the production side, INV monitored quality and encouraged diversification. The state’s role in the wine industry in Mendoza would undergo dramatic changes in the 1980s in the midst of an oversupply crisis.

Introduction

In 1835, Charles Darwin laid eyes upon the spectacular Andes Mountains that lay before him. At the foot of the jagged, snow-capped ridges lay a small town called Mendoza. To many travelers, Mendoza looked like a paradise after the rugged two-week trek across the pampas from the European metropolis of Buenos Aires. But experienced explorer Darwin thought otherwise, “To my mind the town has a stupid, forlorn aspect to it…but, to those who, coming from Buenos Ayres, have just crossed the unvaried pampas, the gardens and orchards must appear delightful.”

The canals and the contrast in flora are some of the only aspects that remain in present-day Mendoza. Twenty-first century Mendoza is home to a multi-billion dollar wine industry that is world renowned for its Malbec red wine. Geographically, Mendoza is located in the western region of Cuyo, bordered by the Andes Mountains and Chile in the west. It is known for its dry, hot summers and mild, yet humid winters. For centuries, the natives to Mendoza have utilized the rainwater that flows off the Andes Mountains each spring for hydroelectric power and irrigation.

With an emphasis on the past 15 years, this paper will explore the evolution of the wine industry since its initial growth in 1880. Although special attention will be paid to the impact of government institutions in the province of Mendoza, economic and historical factors will be explored as well.

Almost Done! Casi terminado!

So, I'm almost done with my final project on the wine industry. I will be posting the final product as I review each section.

Casi estoy terminado con mi trabajo final sobre la industria vitivinícola. Voy a estar poniendo las entradas después que reviso cada parte del trabajo.