About 20 years ago, Argentina saw the first stirrings of what would become known as the ‘terroir revolution’. During this time, wineries began to carry out in-depth studies of their vineyards to gain a better understanding of the effect the local conditions had on their wines.
This meant that it became useful for labels to state an exact place of origin, to indicate what drinkers might expect of the terroir-imbued character of the wines.
In 1999, the National Institute of Viticulture of Argentina (NIV) began a programme of Geographic Indications (GI) based around existing political boundaries – namely provinces, departments and districts. However, those demarcations did not necessarily align with the natural boundaries responsible for lending wines their distinctive profiles.
