We are firm believers that Argentina can provide the best value wines in the New World. The potential is frankly huge, new investment is coming to fruition and the place feels fresh and dynamic - as demonstrated on our latest visit in March 2010.

Argentinians may well be providing you with the most exciting flavours too, in addition to world class Malbec.

The heritage of producers and ‘bodegeros’ (the winery owners) is broadly Italian and Spanish, mixed now with recent investment in winemakers and technology from French, American and even Australian companies. Alto Pampas Viognier and its Pinot Noir partner are a delicious pairing and recommended particularly as party wines: they have a generosity that is rarely found at the price. Getting more serious with the whites, you should try Lurton’s Pinot Gris, a wine that punches well above its weight, particularly if you like Pinot Grigio from Italy. French winemaker François Lurton spotted the potential for this grape variety and has carved out a real winner. Torrentes works well for Lurton too, albeit at a simple level in the Tierra de Luna range.

In the reds, Barbera, Bonarda and Sangiovese all make good, characterful wines, but the star is Malbec, described recently as ‘once cultivated unsuccessfully by the French’! Depending how rich and spicy you like your wine, the natural progression at the Lurton stable is from Tierra de Luna Malbec to Malbec Reserva, finishing up with the quite seriously structured Piedra Negra Gran Reserva, one of the emerging stars of the ‘Southern Cone’. To contrast with the Lurton wines, we bring you Weinert, one of the oldest bodegas in Argentina. Their wines are rather more structured and fit well with food, particularly beef!

With a winery built in the 1590s, Mexico is the oldest wine producing country in the Americas. The Italian Cetto family’s vineyards are in the Baja California Peninsula, not far from the United States border. Vines are planted where it is cool, either a thousand feet up or where the sea fogs give protection from the scorching sun. The resulting, rich Spanish-style reds are very successful.

Robert Boutflower