How Argentine businessmen size up Javier Milei

If you ever had a dream of chucking it all in and heading to the southern hemisphere to buy a vineyard, there are few places more alluring than the wine-growing regions around Mendoza, a charming tree-lined city in western Argentina. Your vines would be watered by snowmelt from the Andes mountains, which tower majestically overhead. You are on the doorstep of a city that is fast becoming a Napa-style mecca for wine-buffs and foodies from across Latin America. And because of repeated devaluations, your hard currency goes far. So far, in fact, that if you change dollars on the black market, you walk away with a sackful of pesos.This is, moreover, the land that gave the world Malbec, a brand as Argentine as Maradona and Messi. Unlike so much else in Argentina, Malbec is a product of the free market. It first came to prominence globally in the 1990s when the country was enjoying an economic boom. After that experiment in economic orthodoxy ended in 2002, the industry survived the decades of Peronist interventionism, and failed stabilisation efforts that followed, mostly because of a fortuitous hedge: when the peso weakens, exports go up; when it strengthens, more bottles sell at home.