The wine industry has changed considerably in the past twenty years. While new market opportunities increased the trade of wine worldwide, scientific and technical changes have produced a shift from quantity-oriented and poor quality wine production to quality-oriented production. Increased codification of knowledge has allowed new producing countries, often industrialising ones, to compete in the international markets and to close the technological gap with more advanced traditional producers. This paper shows that, in spite of the techno-scientific change in this industry, tacit knowledge persists being important but of a different nature, with respect to that normally used by old farmers in the production of wine. The paper discusses the implications of this aspect on the capacity of emerging, industrialising countries – such as Chile and Argentina – to compete internationally. Moreover, it raises questions for policy.