The Independent

The cost of producing wine in Argentina is seven to 10 times cheaper than in France, according to ANTHONY ROSE. But why is the country playing second fiddle to its Andean rival Chile? At the time when Chile made its presence felt in the UK, Argentina was still making oceans of plonk, and old-fashioned oxidised plonk at that. With a fragmented industry of 1,200 wine companies compared with Chile's 200, Argentina lacks economies of scale, and it's only since the mid-1990s that it has come out of its shell.'