Both the selection and sales of Argentinean wines have grown lately in Ontario - in 2006-7, the "Chile and Argentina" category outperformed all other major regions with a 15.8% increase in sales. But the wines are doing even better in the States.

The quality/value proposition is always important: people like to feel they're getting good quality at a low price, and Argentina delivers. The Argentinean wine industry continues its modernization and transformation and is finding big sales increases abroad.

For years they were content to offer ho-hum wines to the home market, but producers have smartened up over the last decade and are turning out better wine than ever - some are even starting to move up the price scale. They need the export markets too: According to a study done for Vinexpo in Bordeaux, last year Argentina was one of only six markets in the world where wine consumption fell.

The runaway success of Fuzion shows they still have a lock on the bottom end of the market, which actually bodes well: people may begin trading down as the recession grinds on. Argentina's winemakers also compete very well in the low-teens with great, ripe, full malbecs, cabs and merlots. At the high end, look for more and more producers to be breaching the $20 mark.

And for all their success here, Argentina's US sales are even better.