Geography and climate dictate much of where good wine grapes will grow. Between the grape vines themselves, daily and yearly temperature fluctuations, the amount of rain and sunlight the grapes get, and even the amount of trace minerals in the soil, many factors determine the quality of the grape which vintners begin with, and the quality of the wine they can press and ferment from it. As a rule, grapes grow well at about 20-50 degrees north and south latitude. The climate that yields the best wine grapes is described as “Mediterranean,” with defined seasons.

In South America, Argentina and Chile lead the pack in production, and awards, with a few other countries, such as Uruguay, producing consistently well-reviewed wines for export, while Brazil’s sparkling wines win accolades.

Wine tourism is taking hold in South America, and those from the northern hemisphere who are planning a trip should keep in mind that the seasons are reversed down in the southern cone, with the height of summer in January and February and wine harvests generally taking place in March and April.

South America has wine tasting for every budget, and in many nations. If a multi-day trip to the vineyards is not in the cards, consider a day trip. Or check out events surrounding the vendimia (wine harvest) or other wine tasting events held in cities and near vineyards.

Below you’ll find the main wine-producing, and thereby prime wine-tasting areas in South America, with a heavy focus on the big two, Argentina and Chile, a warning not to forget Uruguay, and information about wine in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, and even Venezuela, each of which are working to carve out a space for themselves in this growing industry.

Argentina

Argentina produced 2,900,000 metric tons of wine in 2007, which places it ahead of Chile in terms of production, though Argentina’s neighbour across the Andes actually exports more wine to other countries.

Visitors to Argentina will find that most wine tasting takes place in and around the city of Mendoza, which enjoys an extremely long spring and summer, and contributes to the health of the vines and the quality of the wines produced.

Argentina’s signature wine is Malbec, a red wine originally from the Bordeaux region of France. Argentina has been growing grapes for Malbec for over 150 years, but only in the last 20 has this wine truly taken off, and Argentina now produces more than 70% of the world’s Malbec. It is a dark red, and some people describe hints of blackberries and coffee beans but unless you’re a sommelier or have trained your nose with the Nez du Vin aroma set, you’ll probably just taste it and know if you like it or not, without identifying the underlying notes.

Entrepreneurial travellers and visitors to Mendoza can rent a car and fill it up with friends and strangers to visit the wineries on their own, (with a designated driver, please!), but more commonly, visitors to the area book day trips with travel agencies to take them amid the rolling hills of the wine region. We recommend renting a bicycle to tour the wineries in Mendoza. It is the best way to indulge in the scenery and culture of the wine region at an easy-going pace.

Wine lovers visiting the region may also like to visit areas other than Mendoza which produce excellent wines, such as Salta, to get a full picture of what Argentina has to offer. In addition to Malbec, Argentina also produces Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and also varieties such as Tempranillo, Bonarda, Barbera and Torrontés. Information on Argentine wines can be found on the Wines of Argentina website.

Chile

Just over the Andes from Argentina lies Chile, a diminutive strip of land sandwiched between the ocean and the cordillera, and which is exploiting its wine-growing regions to great advantage in recent years.

Chilean wines are popular exports, and its most fabled variety is Carménère, which has made a particularly big impact after the source vines Bordeaux suffered a blight and all but disappeared in their native France. In Chile the variety continues to be strong, and great efforts are made by the Chilean government to protect Chilean agriculture, including the wine industry.

Wine in Chile is not limited to Carménère, and the nation also produces prize-winning Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and other varieties. As of this year, Chilean wine represents 40% of the wine imported to the United States, due both to its reputation and price-quality ratio. Chile is mainly known for its red wines, but it also produces quality white wines including Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, and even a small quantity of Gewürztraminer. Blends and sparkling wines are also taking hold in Chile.

Chilean wine tourism, or enoturismo has taken off in recent years, with multi-day trips offered by various outfitters, which mainly focus on the Colchagua, Maule and Maipo valleys, which are not far from Santiago, though valleys north and south of the capital city also receive visitors.

A “wine train” takes wine tourists to Santa Cruz wineries, and includes tastings on the train as well as folkloric dance and talks on Chilean history, if visitors wish. Multi-day trips can be arranged in groups or privately, on train, by vehicle, or even by bicycle through the various valleys, and several wineries are easy to get to by public transportation, including the mass market Concha y Toro, which is just a few minutes from the end of the Santiago metro line.

For a complete listing the nation’s wine-producing regions, see the Wines of Chile website.

Uruguay

Uruguay, like Chile and Argentina, has a history of wine-production tracing back to its European ancestors. The country is well situated (if a bit humid in places) to produce good wines, and its shining star is Tannat, for which this small, Atlantic nation is known.

Most wine production takes place in the Canelones region, near the capital city of Montevideo. While many amateur wine-lovers would not come to Uruguay for wine tasting on its own, it is not uncommon to take a day or two here after touring some of the more selective wineries in Chile and Argentina.

Visit Uruguay’s wine website for more information about Uruguayan wines, including where to find distributors closer to home.

Colombia

Colombia may also surprise you with the presence of Ain Karim, a vineyard that produces wines under the brand name Marqués de Villa de Leyva, which started production in the 1980s, in the foothills near Sutamarchán. In a country which is largely tropical, and in a zone which is clearly outside of the prime grape-growing here the solution was also to grow grapes at an altitude, to fulfil the need for daily temperature fluctuation. This vineyard’s website proclaims that the vineyard was formed through a combination of inspiration and insanity. It produces Riesling, a German variety and Pinot Noir, originally from France.

Another Colombian wine agglomeration brings together 70 families from 16 communities in the Consorcio del sol de Oro, which together has more than 250,000 plantings, where European specifications are followed to produce Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc wines, exported to Bogotá (the undisputed gastronomical capital of Colombia), as well as Europe.

Brazil

Brazil is perhaps better-known for cachaça, the grain-alcohol that forms the base of the minty-lemony caipirinha, but several states in this vast country produce wines, including Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Pernambuco and São Paulo, though the Serra Gaucha, north of Porto Alegre is one of the most commonly-visited.

Recently, Brazilian vintners have brought wines to tastings in Germany and California’s Sonoma. At a recent tasting held in Brazil, whites and sparkling wines were the best received, as the reds suffered from poor climatic conditions (excessive rain) that are typical of much of Brazil.

Wine tourism is doing well in Brazil, with multi-day tours and one-vineyard trips as the budget allows.

Peru

Just to the north of Chile and Argentina, where the Andes mountains grow even more soaring as they reach up into Peru, there are also several wine-producing areas where visitors can go wine-tasting.

Wine tourism in Peru is in its infancy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of a day tour, or organize your own to one of the wineries in the principal grape-growing regions near Lima, Ica and Arequipa.

And if it turns out you don’t love Peruvian wines, near Ica is also the famous region of Pisco, for which the main ingredient in Pisco Sour (Peru’s signature drink) is named.

Venezuela

A trip through all the wine-producers of South America would be remiss in not mentioning, Venezuela, which the uninformed might also assume is too close to the equator to be able to grow wine grapes. Again, altitude is the answer, and the favourable conditions include a greater-than-30 degree daily fluctuation in temperature and good soil drainage.

The area produces two harvests per year, in September and March. Bodegas Pomar, a subsidiary of the conglomerate Polar, which produces beer and other foodstuffs in Venezuela, has spent US$20 million to help develop the Venezuelan wine industry in the last ten years, and represents a hefty chunk of the Venezuelan wine market.

Bodegas Pomar grows six varieties of red grapes and five of white grapes, with hopes to expand the market, to which tourism is essential, because though wine-drinking is increasing in Venezuela, hard alcohol is more commonly drunk.

Bolivia

Bolivia is not exactly world-renowned for its wine, but serious purveyors of the hard-to-find won’t want to miss wines produced in this nation, which dares to grow the fruit at 5,600 to 9,200 feet above sea level, when grapes in South America are normally grown between 2,000 and 3,000 feet.

Information on this wine high-altitude wine production is available on the vinosenlatura website, the name of which means “wines at altitude” in English. Near the municipality of Tarija, you can find wines produced by Campos de Solana, for example, whose offerings include Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling.

As in Peru, much of the wine crop is destined to the national spirit, which in this case is Singani.

Ecuador

Ecuador actually imports quite a bit of wine from Chile, but it does produce its own as well, with grapes grown at 8,000 feet above sea level, where daytime temperatures are spring-like, and night-time temperatures drop, which increases the grape’s sugar content, and makes for good wine.

At Estancia Chaupi, they produce Chardonnay, Palomino, Palomino Fino and Meritage wines. The vineyard is located about 6 miles south of the Equatorial line and in the foothills of the Andes in the Yaruqui valley. Ecuador also produces a sparkling wine and several fruit “wines” which are not technically wines since they are not made from grapes.

The pizza arrived in Argentina in the 19th Century with the waves of Italian immigrants. The Italians first settled in La Boca neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, and almost immediately pizzerias started to appear. But over the years, the Argentine pizza began to differ from its Italian original. One big difference is its thickness. In Buenos Aires most pizzas will be up to 2.5cm (1in) thick, almost double its thin ancestor from Naples, where pizzas are said to have originated. “The Argentine pizza also has much more cheese than the one made in Italy,” says Carlos Rivero, a pizza chef with 16 years’ experience. But there is also one main reason, according to market analysts, that might explain why is the pizza becoming so popular: its cost.

The average steak – the popular “bife de chorizo” – can cost some $12.50 in an average restaurant in Buenos Aires. A pizza with four slices, enough for one person, will probably cost half that. “People might be increasingly opting for pizza when they go out because they are simply seeking to save some money, as steak houses are more expensive,” says Ximena Diaz Alarcon, a researcher from market and trends consultancy Trendsity. “I do not think this is reflecting a massive cultural change or shift in consumption patterns in households, where beef is still the staple food of choice,” she adds. Argentina has one of the highest inflation rates in the Americas. The official figure is almost 10% per year, but analysts says it is running at double that. Farmers say that the beef’s increased cost in recent years explains the sharp drop in its consumption over the last decade. In 2000, Argentines ate 64.4kg per habitant per year, whilst in 2010 that was down to 55.7kg. A key factor has been a significant reduction in the number of cattle, as some farmers have found it more lucrative to use their land for other, highly sought commodities like soybean. Also, farmers say that government restrictions on beef exports – which attempt to keep a leash on internal prices, have led to a lack of incentive in production. “But when families at home seek to replace the expensive beef they would not start eating pizza, they would just buy cheaper cuts,” says Ms Diaz Alarcon. Owners of pizza restaurants in Buenos Aires are living in what they say are “happy days.” “The pizza was never so popular. We have had a big boost in demand in recent years,” says Rodolfo Palmieri, manager of Piola, a popular pizzeria in Buenos Aires. If the current trend continues, it might just be that visitors to Buenos Aires will start hearing beforehand more about its pizzas than its steaks.

The reason? According to the recently released documentary Fast Food Off the Shelf, the company’s failure had to do with the country’s fierce local food culture.

In an era in which we’ve realized that the globalization of food production has affected our health and environment, and when we’re re-thinking how we eat, Bolivia’s relationship with food may be an interesting case study (and not the only one: the country has already showed leadership in giving the earth rights, ensuring food security, and hearing native’s protests cutting development in the Amazon).

Mate’s origin date back to the Guaranis, an indigenous people who lived in Paraguay, South West of Brazil, North East of Argentina, as well as some areas of Bolivia and Uruguay. Coming from the Kichwa word, “mati” to describe the plant shell, the beverage was once called “Ca’a,” meaning plant in Guarani language. It was used during mystical rituals or as a welcome drink. The Guaranis also used to take mate for its energizing properties. The legend says that, one day, an old nomad man was too weak to keep following his tribe and decided to settle down with his daughter Yarii. They soon ran out of food. One night, a stranger visited them and asked for food and shelter. The old father and his daughter generously gave away the food they had left. Surprised by such hospitality, the visitor, who actually was Tupa, the Guaranis’ supreme god, offered them a plant he created to make a special kind of tea, so that they will never be thirsty again and always remain healthy. He also told them to share the beverage with the others from the tribe. Since then, mate has been synonymous with health, endurance and sharing.

According to the book “Short history of the Spanish conquest” written in 1612 by historian Ruíz Díaz de Guzmán, the Spaniards first discovered the plant in Paraguay in 1592 thanks to Hernando Arias de Saavedra, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Rio de la Plata province. Aware of the healthy and stimulating properties of the drink, the Jesuit missionaries started to drink mate as a tea, called “mate cocido,” a boiled mate that was simply referred to as “tea of Paraguay” or “tea of Jesuits.” They also developed its cultivation and trade, spreading its consumption in many countries of South America.

Today, mate is the national Uruguayan drink. The Uruguayan people are the major consumers of mate per capita in the world. They take it at any time of the day or the night. Each time is a special moment of sharing and friendship. Drinking mate is like a social ceremony with specific rules to respect. Traditionally, the herbal tea has to be shared in the “ronda de mate.” The drinkers sit down in a circle and pass the mate gourd around so that everyone can taste it one after the other. One of them, the cebador, is in charge of serving. To prepare a good mate, he will fill the gourd up to one-half to three quarters with yerba, add a little hot water to help place the bombilla and then add remaining hot water to fill the gourd. Afterwards, the cebador will taste the first brew before passing it around. The gourd will be filled up with water and emptied again until the yerba is washed out (lavado) and loses its flavour.

Yerba mate has a strong, pungent, earthy and bitter taste with hints of herbal and tobacco flavours, due to its tannin content. It is made from the leaves of Ilex paraguariensis, an evergreen tree of the holly family with white flowers and little very dark red berry fruits. The plant can reach up to about fifteen meters in the wild but it is usually raised to just two or three meters when cultivated. After four or five years of growing, the first leaves are harvested every year. Once harvested, they are stored to ventilate. They are then passed rapidly through a flame to break the cuticles. After being dried, they are milled, aged and finely milled before being packaged.

The mate gourd also has to pass through a special process before being first used, called curing. Indeed, the new gourd keeps an inner membrane that has to be removed. To do so, the mate has to be filled with yerba and warm water and be left for six to ten hours before being washed. This process has to be repeated during three days. And finally the mate is ready to be used!

Drinking mate is definitely a traditional art that has been kept alive for centuries. The pleasure of sharing an ancestral ritual is not the only benefit of this mystical beverage. Recent studies have shown many health and well-being properties of the plant. First of all, mate yerba contains stimulants, mainly caffeine, also called mateine, but also theobromine or theophylline that have relaxing effects on smooth muscle tissue and stimulating effects on the heart. However, its specificity is to stimulate without provoking the side effects of other caffeine-containing drinks, such as anxiety or heart palpitation. Thus, mate is also a good ingredient to lose weight and prevent obesity. Mate is also highly nutritional with a high content of mineral elements, vitamins and amino acids such as calcium, manganese, iron, potassium, selenium, magnesium or phosphorus as well as vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, B3, B5, etc. This cocktail produces energizing effects, in particular for mental and physical fatigue.

Moreover, mate is a natural anti-oxidant, containing some eleven types of polyphenols, a chemical found in plants. As a result, mate yerba exhibits rejuvenating properties by preventing cells’ ageing, protecting effects on the liver and the heart as well as anti-cancer effects by strengthening natural defences and protecting it against cellular destruction. However, some limited evidence has shown that mate consumption could be associated with an increased incidence of cancer. The high temperature of the drink would have to be blamed for this phenomenon.

Beside the polyphenols, saponins, another type of phytochemicals, were found in mate’s leaves. These compounds have some of the effects of the polyphenols. They are anti-carcinogens and anti-oxidants. In addition, they induce a cholesterol reduction, by binding with bile salt and cholesterol in the intestinal tract and facilitating cholesterol absorption. This reduction is especially noticeable when associated with appropriate medicine. Moreover, saponins are believed to boost the immune system.

Good for the body, for the soul and even for the social life, mate is an ancestral tradition whose fame has spread all over the world and it’s a beverage that will remain sacred in Uruguayans’ hearts forever.

Some predict the potential of Latin American-inspired menus could see restaurants and food shops quickly springing up nationwide. This month, pioneering restaurateurs David Ponte and Jamie Barber are set to launch Cabana, a Brazilian barbecue, in London’s West End and at Stratford’s Westfield shopping centre.

Two more restaurants, Ceviche in Soho and Lima in Shoreditch, both in central London, are also due to open next year. The South American-inspired restaurant chain Las Iguanas is opening in Newcastle and Sheffield this month, while Rodizio Rico, which has four Brazilian restaurants in London, will expand to Birmingham, and the Argentine grill De la Panza (“All about the belly”) opened in Islington, in north London, last month.

Mr Adria, who is making a documentary about the world of food in Peru – known as the land of a thousand flavours – said: “Latin America is living through a very important cultural euphoria through its cuisine. In particular, Peru is experiencing socio-cultural phenomena through gastronomy. There is no other country that I know of where this is happening as it is in Peru.”

Virgilio Martinez, the chef behind the London Lima restaurant, said more than 8,000 people in Lima who are training as chefs would fuel the renaissance. “Peruvian cuisine is not well known in London, a city that offers a lot gastronomically. The lives of Peruvians revolve around food, cooking, eating and new ingredients.”

Mr Ponte said: “It’s undiscovered, yet Latin America is at the top of everyone’s thoughts: Rio is now the most visited city in the southern hemisphere.” He believes political troubles on the continent have indirectly slowed the journey of Latin American food, which, compared with Asian cuisine, is relatively unknown.

The reputation of Argentinian and Brazilian cuts of meat, offered at steakhouses such as Gaucho, has led to an increase in popularity, with the well-known Ginger Pig butcher chain introducing Brazilian picanha beef cuts over the past six months. Gabriel Gaya, head of Gaya Ecotrade, a Brazilian food importer, finds acai berries and cassava cheesebread are now some of his best-selling imports. Other sought-after treats include Colombian chocolate. Mauricio Rodriguez, the Colombian ambassador to the UK, said: “This is going to be the decade of Latin America. People are discovering exotic flavours and wonderful fruits: they’re looking for something new.” With visitors to Colombia rising by 35 per cent last year, exposure to food from chefs such as Leonor Espinosa whets their tastebuds, he said.

Brazil’s hosting the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games is also expected to boost interest in the continent. High street supermarkets are, meanwhile, eyeing up opportunities. Romilly Edelmann, Sainsbury’s product developer, said: “The success of our new Mexican range means we are looking at other cuisines from South and Central America. We think next year will be an exciting time for new tastes.”

David Ponte, the owner of Cabana, picks his top 10 Latin American dishes, which will soon be as familiar to us as hummus…

Ceviche: Fish cured with lemon or lime, spiced with chilli, onion and coriander.

Arepas: Venezuelan corn-dough sandwich.

Humitas: Native American dish from pre-Hispanic times, this traditional food from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru is made from masa harina (dough) and corn, slowly cooked in oil.

Black beans: Also known as turtle beans in Brazil: comfort food when served in a cup of soup with bacon on top.

Faina: Chickpea flatbread served in pizzerias across Uruguay.

Papas Rellenas: Peruvian stuffed potatoes

Churrasco: Grilled beef from Brazil or Argentina. The picanha, or rump cap, has a layer of fat, while the cupim is the slow-cooked hump of the zebu cow.

Avocado mousse: Dessert of avocado, sugar and lime juice.

Garapa: Juice squeezed straight out of a sugar cane – an effective hangover cure.

Caju: Fruit from the cashew nut. Delicious and refreshing.

Pao de Queijo: The ubiquitous Brazilian cheesy cassava doughball.

Beirute: Toasted flatbread sandwich invented in the Fifties by Syrian brothers in Sao Paulo when they ran out of normal bread.

At the forefront is Gastón Acurio, Peru’s Jamie Oliver, a ubiquitous figure in the Peruvian media who has turned cooking into a national obsession.

“Through our cooking we have re-discovered our identity and from there we’ve made a new cry of freedom. That’s why it means so much to us,” he said. “Peru had got used to the idea that it would always be one step behind history, then suddenly we woke up to our food: something uniquely Peruvian with its own words, flavours and products. It’s something which has bred tolerance in our historically conflictive country.”

The son of a Peruvian senator, Acurio trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. But he is convinced that aspiring chefs no longer need leave the country and wants to ensure Peru can provide opportunities for those who “haven’t had the luck I’ve had.”

“In my home we were always taught to give back, to recognise we were the lucky ones, so if I can have a cooking school in the poorest area in Lima so that those who don’t have opportunities can have them, I’m simply fulfilling my duty.”

Acurio has set up his school in Pachacutec, a sprawling shantytown on a fog-covered hill 30 miles north of Lima. A two-hour bus ride from the centre, the school’s red brick structure stands out starkly in the surrounding desert sands.

Only 40 out of 500 applicants qualify for the two-year course. A few come from Pachacutec, such as Dalia Godoy, the 21-year-old daughter of Quechua-speaking migrants from Huancavelica, Peru’s poorest province.

She admits she never dreamed that being a chef would be a career option but says Acurio’s school has changed her life. She will go on to do work experience in one of his six restaurant chains and hopes to open her own place one day.

Pachacutec has improved since she moved there with her family a decade ago, she says. Now there are paved roads and electricity, and next year Dalia hopes the wooden home she shares with her parents and four siblings will have running water and a sewage pipe.

The Pachacutec cooking school is just one example of how Acurio has been able to boost Peruvians’ appreciation of their traditional cuisine. But it is just part of a global franchise. With restaurants in Madrid, San Francisco and all over Latin America, Acurio could well be the continent’s most successful chef.

His company, La Macha, has 30 restaurants in 12 countries and expects to turn a profit of US$55m (£36m) by the end of the year. Later this month Acurio’s La Mar Cebicheria will open in New York City.

It is a long way from his original “big dream” of opening a restaurant with his German wife, Astrid Gutsche, when they returned to Peru in 1994.

“I never would have imagined it,” he admits, perhaps surprised at the momentum behind the “gastro-boom” of which he is the de facto leader.

Peru has just held its enormous annual food festival, Mistura, which had close to 400,000 visitors this year – seven times as many as three years ago. It showcases everything from street vendors selling anticuchos (beef heart kebabs), to Peruvian-ised Chinese food, known as chifa, to exotic Amazon fruits such as camu camu and aguaje and organic gourmet chocolate and coffee. Queues tail around the block for tickets at 20 Peruvian soles (£4.70) a head.

Despite his wealthy origins, Acurio is popular across Peru’s deep socio-economic divide – so much so that he has been forced to deny rumours that he would run for president. The enthusiasm for food shared by Peruvians from all walks of life is evident at Mistura. “What’s lovely is when you pass through that door, class distinctions vanish,” says Acurio.

Most Peruvian cuisine is centred on the native aji chilli pepper. Add to this a unique mix of ingredients from one of the world’s most biodiverse nations and a 500-year fusion of pre-Colombian, Inca, Spanish, Arab, African, Chinese, Japanese and Italian cuisines and you have a gastronomy that is nothing if not distinctive.

Ceviche is Peru’s best-known dish: a mouthwatering combination of fresh raw fish marinated in the juice of Peruvian lemons and spiced with aji chilli peppers. Other seasonings such as red onion, coriander and salt and pepper can be added. On the side, glazed sweet potato and Peruvian sweetcorn with its distinctively large kernels.

Lomo Saltado is stir-fried beef strips with onion and tomato. It is served with white rice and chips (best made from native Peruvian potatoes – Peru has more than 3,000 varieties).

Aji de Gallina is a chicken stew with a spicy, creamy and nutty sauce made from aji chilli paste, cheese and pecan nuts. It is Peruvian comfort food and takes a long time to prepare. Everyone claims their mother’s version is the best. Served with white rice, yellow potatoes and boiled eggs.

Papa a la Huancaina is peeled, boiled yellow potatoes served with a very representative Peruvian flavouring of aji chilli paste, crushed crackers and cheese cooked down into a smooth, slightly spicy yellow-coloured sauce. Served with a boiled egg.

Ecuador is the third largest consumer of alcohol per capita in Latin America, behind only Argentina and Guyana. While guzzling less than their European counterparts, Ecuadorians still consume 9.4 litres on average per year according to World Health Organization statistics. In response, the government has raised taxes, much to the chagrin of industry, and banned sales on Sundays, a move unpopular with the public at large.

Now some are blaming the government for the country’s worst alcohol-related tragedy ever. And critics say its response, focusing on a large-scale buyback program, has failed to keep the population safe. It is still unclear how quickly, if ever, the government will manage to obtain toxic alcohol still flowing around Ecuador.

The tragedy began in mid-July, after deadly intoxications in the south-western province of Los Rios were reported.

The government initially banned all sales of alcohol nationwide for three days. Officials launched an investigation, which eventually showed that the lethal concoctions originated from 14 brands from the same factory in the coastal region of Guayas, where methanol, a type of alcohol that is highly toxic, was used as a base instead of ethanol.

Health officials shut the factory down, and the owners were arrested. But unable to obtain all of the toxic liquor, the government initiated a week-long buyback program, urging residents to sell back alcohol for $0.80 per litre of alcohol returned.

By most accounts, the program, which ended Monday, failed. The local news has reported, for example, that people sold the government boxed water, knowing that nobody would dare test the products. In a week, the government only bought back 128,000 litres, leaving another 372,000 still in circulation.

For government critics, this is just another in a long line of failed policies on alcohol.

Take taxes. Since 2000, taxes have gone up from $0.07 to $0.90 per bottle on legal domestic alcohol. The sales of legal products have gone down by half. But that doesn’t mean success, says Jorge Talbot, head of Ecuador’s Association of Alcohol Manufacturers. He says higher taxes on legal alcohol only served to increase sales of illegal alcohol, which is cheaper.

“In Ecuador you can get people to consume less alcohol by educating them, not by raising taxes,” he says.

The Sunday ban is just as unpopular among some sectors. The idea, put into place last year, was that banning alcohol on Sundays might reduce alcohol-induced criminality, which peaks on weekends, particularly at the end of the weekend. The government says the ban has reduced crime. But Mr. Talbot argues that it too has simply pushed people to buy alcohol illegally. Indeed, locals know that at corner shops they can still buy alcohol and that some bars will serve beers in coffee mugs.

In the wake of this tragedy, Ecuador should be putting its emphasis on what is the real culprit here, industry leaders say: a lack of product regulation. In this case, the brands selling the methanol did so illegally, but their boxes were disguised as legal. It is part of a bigger problem regarding a lack of control over health certificates related to food, drinks, and medicine in Ecuador. Until earlier this year, all that was needed to receive a health permit and commercialize a product was to have the health authorities check and approve one sample.

The health ministry says they have stepped up controls when it comes to doling out health certificates necessary to sell products. But as this latest incident shows, they have a long way to go to ensure protection.

Fray [Brother] Francisco de Carabantes is credited with bringing the first vines into Chile through the port of Concepción in 1548. This was the País (pa-EES) grape that is similar to California’s Mission grape. Such was the variety’s success in adapting to Chilean soils that vineyards were quickly planted throughout the country from the Limarí Valley in the north to the Bío-Bío Valley in the south. Uncannily, although quality wine production historically tended toward the centre of the country, modern technology has once again extended the frontiers of Chile’s fine wine appellations (Denomination of Origin or D.O.) precisely to its original northern and southern extremes.

The 16th century residents of the burgeoning capital city of Santiago – mostly sons and daughters of the earliest Spanish immigrants – clamoured for more wine to quench their thirst and whet their appetites as well as to satisfy their spiritual needs. The surrounding Maipo Valley proved to be a tremendous source of red wine, and Chile’s first wine boom began in earnest.

With time improvements in maritime transportation made cross-Atlantic travel possible for the upper classes. Chile, freshly emancipated from Spain in 1810, yearned for knowledge of its wider European roots, and members of the country’s wealthy families embarked upon intercontinental pilgrimages that would profoundly change Chilean life, culture, and wine forever. France was a favourite destination, and soon French customs, from food to clothing to architecture and fine wine consumption, flourished in Santiago. It did not take long for the first new French-style wineries to appear on the outskirts of the city.

By the mid-1800s, interest in European-style fine wine production had caught on. Well-heeled families with fortunes from mining and early industry built extraordinary mansions beyond the city limits and surrounded them with vineyards and European style gardens.

Pioneering naturalist and scientist Claudio Gay brought some 30 Vitis vinifera varieties from France for experimental purposes in the nascent University of Chile’s Quinta Normal agricultural department.

Silvestre Ochagavia was the first to introduce French varieties for commercial purposes a few years later in the Maipo Valley. Others quickly followed suit, and many of Chile’s established wineries were formed during this period including Carmen, Concha y Toro, Cousiño Macul, Santa Carolina, Santa Rita, and Undurraga in the Maipo Valley, along with Errázuriz Panquehue in Aconcagua and what is now San Pedro in Curicó.

Varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Carménère, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Semillón, and Riesling produced noble wines that quickly gained popularity and replaced the País grape, which was relegated to the country’s winemaking extremes, where it is still used today for rustic wines for local consumption.

Chile had entered into a new phase of its winemaking history and once again led the New World as the first to make noble wines for export. This small South American country was also fortunate; the European wine industry was about to undergo a crisis that would never touch Chile.

Trans-Atlantic exchange brought with it tremendous benefits to both continents, but it also had its downside. European gardening enthusiasts had unwittingly imported the devastating vineyard pest Phylloxera hidden in the roots of the native American grape vines that were beautiful though useless for wine production. Europe’s Vitis vinifera vines were defenceless against the tiny and voracious louse that advanced unchecked and quickly decimated thousands of hectares of ancient Old World vineyards along the way. The pest was re-introduced to the Americas with the import of Vitis vinifera vines, yet for reasons that have never fully been understood, Chile remains phylloxera-free to this day.

Despite Chile’s turn-of-the-century successes in the wine industry, two world wars and decades of state protectionism forced the country down a solitary path that isolated it technologically for nearly 50 years. The mid-century Agrarian Land Reform took its toll on an industry that had belonged to the elite, and the country’s relative isolation from the increasingly trade-oriented world essentially kept Chile out of the wine trade for decades more. The country reversed its closed-door policies in 1980s, effectively giving rise to the third and best-known boom in the history of Chilean winemaking.

Chile once again opened its doors to international trade in the late 1970s, when complicated restrictive domestic policies were repealed and political interventionism was relaxed or eliminated. Beginning in 1980, legal liberalization and the country’s economic opening kicked off a revolution in the wine industry with the introduction of modern techniques and technology.

Once again, foreign influence played a key part in Chile’s wine industry. Spanish winemaker Miguel Torres chose the Curicó Valley to establish his New World winery and others from France, Germany, Italy, and California soon followed.

Initial investments concentrated on updating winemaking facilities with temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, gravity-flow infrastructure, modern low-impact crushers and presses as well as annual investments in smaller oak barriques. Changes in the vineyards would soon follow.

A second wave of industry-wide renovation looked to the vineyards. Winemakers who once considered their work to begin when the grapes arrived at the winery were encouraged to step out into the fields and work closely with the winegrowers to improve the quality of the fruit that would ultimately led to much better wines.

Varietal selection had stagnated to concentrate primarily on Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. New varieties were added and new vineyard management techniques such as drip irrigation and vertical trellising were incorporated to increase quality and reduce crop loads.

Chile’s signature grape Carmenere appeared during this process of vineyard renovation. The world was aware that Chile’s “Merlot” was unique, but it wasn’t until 1994 that French ampelographer Jean Michel Boursiquo t finally attached a name to the variant variety: Carmenere, a Bordeaux red variety that had been thought lost to phylloxera was alive and well in Chile.

Today Chile’s winemakers continue their quest for knowledge of the land, climate, and relationship between the terroir and the vines they plant.

They actively seek out new viticultural zones, and young vineyards now scale to ever higher altitudes and push the extremes of the long-recognized D.O.s: east to the Andean piedmont and west to the Pacific coast, north to the Elqui Valley, south to Bío-Bío, and even as far south as Osorno and beyond.

In the process of exploring this vast land full of viticultural possibilities, these “terroir hunters” have rediscovered ancient dry-farmed vineyards that have never seen a chemical fertilizer, that have reached their natural balance without extremes of intervention, whose deep, ungrafted roots seek nutrients deep within the earth and come back with everything they need to produce gorgeously complex wines that reconfirm the benefits of letting nature take its course, unique wines that speak of their origins as few wines in this world can.

Chile is a viticultural paradise where the benevolent climates and multitude of geographical conditions and soil compositions make sustainable viticulture a logical choice. Where organics and biodynamics are perfectly viable and increasingly preferable options for ecologically-friendly winemaking. Where nature provides all the vine needs to produce its finest grapes for the wines that today’s ecologically minded and value-conscious consumers demand.

Despite its nearly 500 years of winemaking heritage, Chile’s wine industry is fresh, young, and boldly evolving to meet the needs of today’s demanding world markets. Chilean wines are now available in more than 90 countries on 5 continents, and sales continue to grow healthily amidst today’s belt-tightening times.

Wines of Chile plays an important part in the effort to promote the national wine industry and is a constant source of information for trade and consumers alike.

The researchers isolated the new species in the frozen forests of Patagonia in South America.

Their discovery suggests that this yeast crossed the Atlantic hundreds of years ago and combined with one traditionally used in Europe to make ale.

The discovery is described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The workhorse of brewing, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is used worldwide to ferment fruit and grains to make wine, cider and ale.

Lager, which is fermented more slowly and at lower temperatures than ale, is presumed to be a later invention, and was likely stumbled upon when Bavarian monks moved their beer barrels into caves for storage.

In those caves, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which prefers to grow just above room temperature, is presumed to have been outcompeted in the fermenting beer by a species that thrived at cooler climes.

The modern-day lager-brewing yeast, Saccharomyces pastorianus, which is a fully domesticated species, is probably a hybrid of this cool-loving strain and the ale-brewing species, and survives because brewers keep back a little of the lager each time to seed the next batch with the same yeast.

“The hybrid almost definitely formed accidentally and people adopted it because the beer came out differently,” said evolutionary biologist Chris Hittinger from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, U.S., who was one of the team behind the discovery.

But researchers have long wondered where the original cool-loving yeast species came from.

That is until Dr Hittinger and his colleagues isolated it from a beech tree in the forests of Patagonia this year.

These forests, where daily lows average around -2C, are the perfect cradle for modern-day lager-brewing yeast. The species has been designated Saccharomyces eubayanus.

“I personally prefer lagers to ales, and I am very grateful that these two distant cousins met up in a Bavarian cellar hundreds of years ago,” Dr Hittinger told BBC News.

Knowing the ancestral strain to the modern day lager-brewing yeast will help scientists pinpoint the effects of domestication in the genome of brewing yeasts.

And there is also the possibility that there are other undiscovered species of yeast in those Patagonia forests that could become the next best brew.

1. Do Your Research

Get online and search for vegan restaurants and health food stores. One of the best places to start is Happy Cow (www.happycow.net); an online directory of restaurants and health food stores that have vegan and vegetarian options. You can search for any city or address (like your hostel or hotel) and it will return a list of vegan/vegan-friendly restaurants nearby. Happy cow (like other vegan restaurant lookup sites) also returns a list of health food stores that carry vegan foods or vegan products. Whenever you would like a vegan meal or snack for your hotel room, lengthy bus trip, or souvenirs to take home with you, a visit to one of these international health food stores is a nice convenience. You should also look online for local vegetarian or vegan associations, where restaurant and health food shop listings tend to be up to date. To find local associations, do a quick Google search for the city name and ‘vegan society’ or ‘vegan association.’ Don’t be scared away if the content isn’t in English, that’s what Google Translator is for. Between these online resources, you should be able to compile a list of places to find vegan food.

2. Connect with Other Vegans

To find possible places to eat you could ask local vegans for recommendations. They’ll know which bakeries have vegan treats and which cafes serve the best weekend brunch. Online resources can only get you so far. The best knowledge is local knowledge. To find local vegans, or get recommendations from vegans who have recently visited the city, start with a Google search. You can usually find them by Googling the city name and ‘vegan.’ With this approach, you’re likely to find a blog by a local vegan or reviews by vegan visitors. You can also connect with vegans on Twitter and Facebook, by searching for the city name and ‘vegan.’ There are also online and offline communities, like the Vegan Around the World Network and Vegan Meet up Groups, that help connect vegans in faraway places.

A really good place to search for vegans is Couch Surfing (www.couchsurfing.com), a website where people offer up their sofas, air mattresses, floors and spare rooms to travellers. It’s a free service, where no money is exchanged. You can filter your results by including ‘vegan’ in the keyword search. There is also a Couch Surfing group for vegan and vegetarian members. Some large and vegan-friendly cities have their own vegan and vegetarian groups. If you don’t like the idea of sleeping in a strangers house, you can always ask people from Couch Surfing to meet for a drink or meal. At the very least, ask a local vegan you met through Couch Surfing for recommendations on restaurants, supermarkets, and health food stores.

3. Carry Snacks

It’s very important to pack food when travelling as a vegan. At the very least, don’t leave home without some snacks for the airplane, bus, train or car ride. You never know when unexpected delays will leave you in a place where vegan options are scarce. Pack easy snacks like apples, bananas, nuts, seeds, homemade sandwiches, granola bars, carrot sticks, bread, pitas, nuts, crackers, peanut butter or hummus. If you’re travelling for more than a week or two, don’t try to pack your entire food supply, just plan to make the local supermarket your first stop. Carrying a small stash of food with you isn’t a recommendation, it’s a requirement for vegan travellers. Unless, of course, you don’t mind skipping a meal or eating something that you’re unsure about. At some point during your travels, you’re bound to find yourself in transit, lost or far away from any vegan restaurants.

4. Find a Kitchen

If you’re travelling to a destination that doesn’t have a lot of vegan restaurants, plan to stay in a hostel or hotel where you’ll have access to a kitchen. This way you can prepare your own meals and have full control over what you eat. Without access to a kitchen, it can be difficult to maintain a healthy vegan diet when travelling to some destinations. If you’re not worried about the weight of your luggage, you can also bring along some kitchen essentials like a good knife, cutting board, travel blender, bowls and utensils. A small Tupperware container and a fork/spoon go a long way, making it easy to take homemade food or leftovers on the road. If you plan to make a lot of your own food on the road while staying in hostels or couch surfing, and you like spices, it is a good idea to premix some dried herbs and spices and take them with you.

5. Pack a Vegan Passport

If your travels take you to a place where you don’t know how to speak the local language, the best thing you can do is learn a few key words before leaving home. If this isn’t possible, and you’re not staying long enough to take lessons once you arrive, the next best thing is to pack a copy of the Vegan Passport. In 73 different languages, this little booklet explains what it means to be a vegan, lists items you can eat, and recommends some simple dishes that can be made vegan. You can show this to people at restaurants to give them an idea of what you’re looking for.

6. Learn the Lingo

Your life will be easier if you can speak some Spanish or Portuguese to explain your eating requirements and check if a meal contains meat or dairy products. Without knowing the local words for things like chicken, milk, eggs, cheese or butter, it will be hard to determine whether or not a food item is suitable for vegans. You can look keywords up online, write down some vegan phrases or carry the Vegan Passport, a handy book that can be used to help communicate your dietary needs at restaurants and stores around the world. Don’t worry too much about the language barrier when you first start travelling as things seem to just fall into place. It won’t be too long before you can say you don’t eat meat or milk or cheese or butter in Spanish or Portuguese. If you have time you should take some language classes on arrival in South America.

7. Go Raw

Whenever you think you can’t find vegan options, go raw. Just get yourself to a grocery, local market, health food store, salad bar, or even a convenience store and find the raw items. You can easily survive on salad, fruit, and nuts for a few days. (And maybe you’ll even decide to go raw more often). As other travellers can testify, there is an abundance of vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and seeds in South America.

8. Tell People You’re Vegan

Make sure you book a vegan meal on your flight. Remind the flight attendants when you board. Tell your hosts that you’re vegan and remind them what that means. They may have suggestions for you. Mention that you’re vegan to the hotel concierge or check-in clerk. They can often recommend a restaurant or know someone else who can.

9. Make it Easy for Others

Don’t walk into a regular restaurant, cafe, bakery or supermarket and ask a staff member to point you in the direction of their vegan options. Don’t expect people to even know what vegan food is. Vegans will have a more difficult time than vegetarians and though some South Americans understand the concept of not eating meat and consider it to be a healthful lifestyle, those who don’t consume any animal products at all may meet with incomprehension. Make things easy for them by asking if they can customize a menu item that’s almost vegan. For example, ask for cheese to be removed from pizza, pasta or a sandwich. If you’re in a bakery, don’t ask if a loaf of bread is vegan, ask if it contains or has been glazed with milk, butter, eggs, lard or any other animal product. If you’re cooking with people who don’t have experience making vegan food, give them specific ideas, share recipes, or offer to prepare a dish for them. Often, people get confused about what is okay, and what’s not. They don’t want to offend you by accidentally adding something you can’t eat. Don’t be afraid to help and answer questions. In the end, hopefully everyone will forget about the missing animal ingredients and enjoy the dish as part of a healthy and tasty meal.

10. Make a List of Vegan Restaurants

Though the prospect of finding vegan food in South America can be daunting, the experience is definitely worth it. Make a list of all the vegan restaurants you found on Happy Cow, TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com), or elsewhere, and pack it in your luggage. Below you’ll find some great South American vegan restaurants to start your list. If you find yourself in an omnivore restaurant, it’s important to be careful when ordering and vegan travellers should make every effort to be prepared. Making a set of vegan translation cards is a good idea if you have a low level of Spanish and/or Portuguese, or don’t have a vegan passport. Though finding food can be a struggle outside of vegan, vegan friendly-only restaurants, it isn’t impossible.

Top Vegan Restaurants in South America:

AlmaZen (Lima, Peru)

Casa Felix (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Entre Indyas (Salta, Argentina)

Buenos Aires Verde (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Namaste (La Paz, Bolivia)

Verde Gourmet (Colon, Argentina)

Mug Cafe (Santiago, Chile)

Arte Sano (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

El Huerto (Santiago, Chile)

Bio (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Verdellama (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Kensho (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Azahares (Mendoza, Argentina)

Cada Dia (Santa Cruz, Bolivia)

Bonobo (Porto Alegre, Brazil)

Refeitorio Organico (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil)

Epif Cafe Vegetariano (Valparaiso, Chile)

Ramy (Barranquilla, Colombia)

La Esquina Vegetariana (Bogota, Colombia)

Restaurante Manantial (Quito, Ecuador)

Vegan Vegan (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

El Gourmet Vegetariano (Caracas, Venezuela)

Imaymana (Bogota, Colombia)