Use your brains

摘要

It is a public holiday, the day of the Malvi-nas, marking the moment in 1982 when Argentine troops briefly raised their flag in Port Stanley. But at the Zuccardi family winery, at the foot of the Andean cordillera half an hour from Mendoza, everybody is busy, learns of workers pluck dense clusters of grapes from the vines; others unload them at the bodega, where new machines separate the fruit from the stalks. The Zuccardis' enterprise embodies the strengths and weaknesses of Argentine business today. Until Mr Menem opened up the economy, the wine industry had been inward-looking: it produced large quantities of plonk for the local market and relied on government-imposed production controls for its profits. In 1987, exports totalled just $6m, or 1% of output. Last year, Argentina exported $170m-worth of wine and $62m-worth of concentrated grape juice, adding up to 12% of output.