Dear Member,
Ascensión was just 20 years old when her father, the General, died. Two decades earlier, in 1810, her family had found itself on the wrong side of the Argentine revolution. The General had been serving as colonial governor of Salta, the vast northwestern province that encompasses the extreme-altitude Calchaquí Valley.
After standing trial before a military junta in Buenos Aires—though some legends claim he hid in a cave for years to avoid capture—the General returned home in search of a quieter life. He established what is now considered the oldest winery in Argentina.
At just 20, Ascensión had little choice but to keep the enterprise going.
It was not without difficulty. Her husband died prematurely at the age of 50, leaving her to carry on alone. But in the mid-1800s, Ascensión made a fateful decision. Realizing that the native Argentine vines (Spanish imports from the 1500s) could not produce high-quality wine, she imported French Malbec vines, hauling them over the rugged Andes by mule.
She could not have known it at the time, but that decision would alter the course of her fortunes—and the course of wine history.
By 1871, Ascensión’s extreme-altitude Malbecs had won gold at the World Wine Expo. A decade or so later, Malbec in France was on its way to extinction, wiped out by phylloxera. Today, Argentina remains one of the few places on earth where you can still find pre-phylloxera French Malbec vines, and even pre-phylloxera European vines of any variety. In Europe, vines must be grafted onto phylloxera-resistant American rootstocks.
It is to Doña Ascensión that we owe Calchaquí Valley Malbec, the highest in the world.
Journey Through the Calchaquí
Our journey this year takes us from the far south of the valley, in the town of Tolombón, through the vibrant wine and golf town of Cafayate (often described as an Aspen of the Andes). From there, we travel north and west through Pucará, Tacuil, the Quebrada San Lucas, and finally into the great Cachi mountains.
In the wine business, the word “microclimate” is often used loosely to differentiate one terroir from another. In the Calchaquí, however, it is a very real phenomenon.
We call it the Calchaquí Valley, singular. Locally, though, it is often referred to as the Calchaquí Valleys, plural—an expression that more accurately reflects the region’s topography. One cannot truly say a vineyard is in the Calchaquí Valley, but rather in the valley of Tacuil, or Pucará, or another distinct pocket.
These vineyards appear as lone green dots in a vast desert wilderness—completely self-sufficient, hours from the nearest neighbor. Each feels like its own world, with its own history, customs, and, most importantly, its own soil and weather.
In This Box
In this box, you will find six bottles:
Tacuil Doña Ascensión 2019
Sunal Salvaje 2019
Francisco Puga y Familia L’Amitié Robusto 2019
El Viticultor 2020
Arca Yaco Imaginate 2019
Atypico 2018
Welcome back to the valleys of the Calchaquí.
Salud,
Will Bonner
Founder, Bonner Private Wine Partnership
