Billionaire Alejandro Bulgheroni's wine dreams for S America

New York

IT was twilight when Alejandro Bulgheroni first saw a 2,200-hectare property for sale in rural Garzón, just north of the Uruguayan resort Punta del Este, where he has a beach house. The peaceful green hills reminded him of Tuscany.

"The place had magic," he says. "I had to have it." He bought it in 1999. "My wife was upset that almond trees on land her grandfather had given her were dying. So we planted them, plus olive trees for me," he says. He finally added vines in 2007 - his first step in creating a wine empire that now includes 12 vineyards on four continents.