20. Cafayate Winery

Agriculture is one of the bases of Argentina's economy.

Argentine agriculture is relatively capital intensive, today providing about 7% of all employment, and, even during its period of dominance around 1900, accounting for no more than a third of all labor. Having accounted for nearly 20% of GDP as late as 1959, it adds, directly, less than 10% today. Agricultural goods, however, whether raw or processed, still earn over half of Argentina's foreign exchange and, arguably, remain an indispensable pillar of the country's social progress and economic prosperity. An estimated 10-15% of Argentine farmland is foreign owned.

One fourth of Argentine exports of about US$86 billion in 2011 were composed of unprocessed agricultural primary goods, mainly soybeans, wheat and maize. A further one third were composed of processed agricultural products, such as animal feed, flour and vegetable oils. The national governmental organization in charge of overseeing agriculture is the Secretariat of Agriculture, Cattle Farming, Fishing and Food (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Alimentos, SAGPyA).

Viticulture (from the Latin word for vine) is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture. It is one branch of the science of horticulture.

While the native territory of Vitis vinifera, the common grape vine, is a band of area from Western Europe to the Persian shores of the Caspian Sea, the vine has demonstrated high levels of adaptability and will sometimes mutate to accommodate a new environment after its introduction. Because of this, viticulture can be found on every continent except Antarctica.

Duties of the viticulturist include: monitoring and controlling pests and diseases, fertilizing, irrigation, canopy management, monitoring fruit development and characteristics, deciding when to harvest and vine pruning during the winter months. Viticulturists are often intimately involved with winemakers, because vineyard management and the resulting grape characteristics provide the basis from which winemaking can begin.

Winemaking, or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruit or non-toxic plant material. Mead is a wine that is made with honey being the primary ingredient after water.

Winemaking can be divided into two general categories: still wine production (without carbonation) and sparkling wine production (with carbonation).

The science of wine and winemaking is known as oenology. A person who makes wine is traditionally called a winemaker or vintner.