Blog special from the winners of the Harpers/ Wines of Argentina competition - Part 2

Continuing our blog special from the winners of the Harpers/ Wines of Argentina Steak Your Claim competition, Emily O'Hare of the River Café contemplates on The End Of The World. Over the next few days, each of our five winners are enjoying a tour of each of the main wine regions and visiting key producers to give them a taste of what Argentina can offer the UK, and sending back missives of their travels. Here's what Emily has to say...

This may come as no surprise but The End Of The World is a rather strange place. It is very still and quiet, a bit eerie really. Old and new sit together, awkwardly, Space age wineries are built on dinosaur bones! The terroir is seriously unique here, the sea shell soils of Chablis just cannot compare to this, crumbled fossils of long necked herbivores pepper the ground upon which beautiful Merlot grows.

Next to these perfectly manicured vines are perfectly designed wineries. The wineries are OUT OF THIS WORLD, not simply at the end ot it / honestly, California has not a patch on Patagonia. Hundreds of stainless steel tanks sit empty, in anticipation, the winemakers here have got plans, and their energy and dynamism will certainly see these through. New American and French barrels also sit fat and happy, waiting, confident.

Visiting these wineries you feel like you'e jostling amongst a set of well trained sprinters, gearing up to go, and with every chance of winning. The wines of Familia Shroeder came in First with Forbes 5, they were intricate and beautifully structured, layered and complex yet lean and lithe, we all felt a renewed interest in the Bordeaux berries / Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon really have something to say here.

My alcohol addled brains are struggling to figure out the next few lines, and I'm being hurried to headoff for yet another fabulous meal, so I'm signing off, although must say, after 4 days in Argentina we STILL havent chowed down on a steak and are getting served salmon and trout and pork, anything but beef at dinner.

And one other point of interest, the Pigeons in Patagonia only peck at the Burgundy varietals / their favourite grapes being Pinot and Chardonnay the viticulturist at Humberto Canale tells us, rodents with wings they may be, but they've got bloody good taste.

• Wines of Argentina
• Harpers Says...