Member Cellar Opening: Up to 20% Off Calchaquí Valley Wines!
PLEASE NOTE: Wines are first come, first served. Once all cases have been claimed, this offer will close.
Get Up To 20% OFF Small-Batch, Limited-Production Calchaquí Valley Wines
A note from Bonner Private Wine Partnership founder, Will Bonner:
Dear Fellow Wine Lover,
Today, we're opening our cellar doors and giving you the chance to reserve wines from this incredible collection at a deep discount for a limited time...
You'll receive 10% off your half case of 6 bottles... PLUS a whopping 20% off your full case of 12 individual bottles or more!
Simply scroll down to select your wines (available in cases of 6, 12, 18, or 24 bottles).
Plus, shipping is ON US!
Cheers,
Will Bonner
Your Calchaquí Collection Cellar
Thibaut Delmotte Malbec Natural | 2022 | Calchaquí Valley, Argentina
8,600 ft.
Malbec
4,500 bottles produced
This 2022 from the lofty vineyards of Cachi is easily a $100+ bottle of wine on its own. The winemaker, our friend (and neighbor, at just an hour or so away!) Thibaut Delmotte is the head winemaker at Bodega Colomé, the folks behind the legendary “Altura Maxima,” which goes for around $130 a bottle (we’ve seen it sell for as much as $195).
Made by hand with zero pesticides or sulfites, this malbec is what you might call an auteur wine, the embodiment of Thibaut’s ideals and philosophies as a winemaker. You will be shocked at how round yet solid the body is for an unoaked, unfiltered, pure malbec (was 8 months aging in a concrete egg the secret?)
Sierra Lima Alfa Cabernet Franc | 2022 | Calchaquí Valley, Argentina
6,561 ft.
Cabernet franc
1,600 bottles produced
In Cafayate, the Calchaqui’s Sebastopol (for Sonoma fans) or Saint-Émilion (for Bordeaux fans), the nascent winery of Sierra Lima Alfa has everyone’s attention. We’ve been fans since we sourced their malbec blend for last year’s collection.
The winemaker, Francisco “Pancho” Morelli Rubio, is a cousin of Raul Dávalos (see the 33 de Dávalos in this collection if you don’t know the name). The two collaborated on the first vintage of Ascensión (imported for the Partnership in 2022).
Pancho has been careful to preserve the character of both grape and terroir by choosing stainless steel for 90% of the juice. The other 10% spent 14 months in French oak – just long enough to give it a lift without muting the cab. (Only 1600 bottles made.)
Sunal Criolla Exploración | 2021 | Calchaquí Valley, Argentina
6,889 to 7,545 ft.
Criolla chica
Caught between a mountain range and hundreds of miles of desert, Amaicha del Valle is a cluster of indigenous homesteads scratching out a living to the south of Cafayate. Fittingly, the grape they grow, on a patchwork of small family plots, is Argentina’s indigenous grape, criolla chica.
Criolla isn’t one varietal but rather the name for dozens of semi-feral hybrids descended from grapes brought to Argentina by conquistadors and missionaries. Winemaker (and longtime friend) Agustín Lanús was the first in the Calchaquí Valley (and the second in all of Argentina) to treat criolla as a serious wine. Today, you might call it “the Beaujolais of the Andes,” a lighter counterpoint to malbec. We imported Augustín’s first criolla, Ilógico, a few years back and can think back fondly to its notes of dried roses, spice, and dates. We are pleased to report that Exploración is equally beguiling. You won’t drink another wine like it. So drink now (why wait?)
Huichaira Vineyards Cielo Arriba | 2019 | Calchaquí Valley, Argentina
Partnership exclusive in the US
8,850 feet above sea level
Hand-harvested
Co-fermented
96 pts. Tim Atkin
Huichaira Vineyard is located in the Huichaira Gorge less than 10km from the town of Tilcara, a small valley surrounded by hills, with a natural sandy formation called the “Huichaira Castles” in the background. There, at 8,850 feet above sea level, the Nieva family vineyard is planted mainly with malbec, but also with cabernet franc and syrah, all hand-harvested at the same time and co-fermented.
Soils are heterogeneous, formed by the sandy base of the Huichaira river and the alluvium of stones and clay from the hills that surround the vineyard, resulting in stony and silt profiles, with more clay in the upper part and sand in the lower part.
Aged 12 months in 4th and 5th use barrels. Great acidity with refreshing and lively flavors of red berries & herbs.
Tacuil 33 de Dávalos | 2020 | Calchaquí Valley, Argentina
8,202 ft.
Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon
93 pts (Atkin)
Long time Partnership members will know the name Dávalos well by now: the reclusive winemaking genius holed up in his impregnable little valley, where, over 200 years ago, his ancestor Ascensión, founder of the oldest winery in Argentina, brought the first malbec vines to the Calchaquí.
It’s unclear if the vines that produced this wine are her originals, but at least some of them are pre-phylloxera and about 200 years old. You drink history when you open this bottle. The name, too, is laden with genealogical significance. Don José Dávalos, who ran the winery in the 1920s, also bred horses and used “33 de Dávalos” as his brand.
After harvesting from vines with deep roots in the rocky soil on the banks of the Mayuco river, Raul and his brother Alvaro chose to go organic and use no oak – letting this stallion of a wine rip with spice, pepper, and ripe fruit. Mineral notes hit once on the palate followed by a long finish.
Paco Puga Contemporaneo | 2021 | Calchaquí Valley, Argentina
7,545 ft.
Cabernet franc, Malbec, Merlot
95 pts (Atkin)
Every year we find ourselves sourcing a new Paco Puga wine. The man is always doing something fascinating: making Burgundian-style wine with malbec, say, or challenging three friends to each create a separate wine then blending them all together with his own. It’s always out of left field and it always works.
With Contemporaneo, Paco invites three grapes to share the spotlight simultaneously. A lesser winemaker might make quite a mess with that concept, but once again Paco pulls it off brilliantly, borrowing elegance from the cab franc, freshness from the merlot, and power from the malbec.
In the nose and on the palate you’ll find blackberries, blueberries, black pepper and spice, with notes of tobacco and vanilla floating in the distance (Contemporaneo spends 12 months in French oak).
Can't Decide? Get A Case of All Six
2024 Argentine Collection
Thibaut Delmotte Malbec Natural 2022
Sierra Lima Alfa Cabernet Franc 2022
Sunal Criolla Exploración 2021
Huichaira Vineyards Cielo Arriba 2019
Tacuil 33 de Dávalos 2020
Paco Puga Contemporaneo 2021
Buy 6 & Save 10%: $249.99 $224.99
Buy 12 & Save 20%: $500 $399.98
Simply Select Your Bottles & Fill out Your information below
(Don't forget, Shipping is on us!)
About the Bonner Private Wine Partnership
Founded by Will Bonner, the Partnership is a group of wine lovers who come together to import great, small batch wines that might otherwise get overlooked by large importers.
No middle men. No additive-packed supermarket wines. No inflated costs.
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A note about our Satisfaction Guarantee: Wines, sadly, are not like power tools. A hardware store can always resell a hammer you used a couple times. Not so for a bottle of wine. Once you pop the cork, it’s a total loss to us. For that reason, we cannot offer full refunds on these offers. But don’t worry, if the wine arrives and there’s something wrong with it, just give us a call and we’ll do what we can to make it right. As a member, your satisfaction is all-important to us.
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