It is difficult to exaggerate how much Argentine wines have changed in the past few years. Until recently a typical Argentine wine was a full-throttle red of almost monstrous proportions, but a recent tasting of almost 100 of the country’s finer wines suggested that many of the most ambitious winemakers are consciously seeking more finesse in their wines.

The key to this has been a noticeable trend to planting vines ever higher up in the Andean foothills, and further and further south, away from the equator. In the south of the country, Argentine Patagonia with its subregion, Rio Negro, is now a serious wine producer in its own right. And a significant proportion of Argentine vineyards are now at more than 1,000m above sea level (in Europe’s much feebler sunshine, 500m is popularly regarded as an effective upper limit for successful grape ripening).