Your special invitation to our most anticipated collection yet...
The 2021 Extreme altitude Argentine collection
Less than 100 collections left...
Experience Argentine Wines ranging from 6,000 ft to almost 9,000 ft, and some of the most isolated vineyards in the world.
Today, I’d like to extend to you a special invitation to try our 2021 Extreme Altitude Argentine Wine Collection
It’s been almost two years since we launched the Bonner Private Wine Partnership with a single shipping container packed with wines from the foothills of the Andes mountains.
The stars of the show then were two malbecs from the extreme altitude Calchaquí Valley – our own Tacana (from the Bonner family ranch at Gualfin) and Sunal Ilógico (from an even higher vineyard at Luracatao several hours up the valley).
Today, we return to this vast frontier where, as the Wall Street Journal described it in 2019, “condors fly above giant cactuses...ancient rock formations vie for attention with Indian ruins...[and where they make] critically acclaimed wines that are largely unavailable outside of the country.”
Thus, you will find no Mendoza or Famatina in this collection, but extreme altitude wines only, ranging from over 6,000 ft. to almost 9,000 ft., and some of the most isolated vineyards in the world.
Here's the deal... we have 100 of these collections available after accounting for over 1,700 current members.
Since you are a recent purchaser of our malbec collection, I’d like to offer you to the head of the line to get access to this special collection of wines.
Something to keep in mind: We’re not some wine club that specializes in cheap bulk wines dressed up with a “cool” label. We don’t bombard our members with dead, underwhelming wines until they cancel.
We send out wines only 4 times a year... and we ensure they will be the most alive, interesting, and delicious wines you will drink.
Is it a good deal? Well, how does less than the cost of your daily coffee sound?
And how about backing that up with a guarantee that you will love these wines... or we will cheerfully return your money? (You don’t even have to send back the wines.)
Remember, we only have 100 collections left to claim, so don’t wait to get yours. Once all of them are claimed, this offer will close.
Simply scroll down to view the entire collection in more detail.
Cheers,
Will Bonner
What's included in the Extreme altitude argentine collection...
Your Bottle of 2019 Tacuil RD (93 pts)
If you’ve had a bottle of Tacana or Mayuco, then you know winemaker Raúl Dávalos and his bodega at Tacuil. With “RD” (named for his father, of whom it is said that he defended his land from socialist expropriators by welcoming unannounced visitors with a rifle), we add another stellar – yet rarely available - vintage to our collection.
If this is your first Dávalos wine, here’s a summary:
Raúl’s ancestor, Spanish general Don Nicolás Severo de Isasmendi, first arrived in the Calchaquí Valley during a series of frontier wars of byzantine complexity in their aims and belligerent. He founded what is now the oldest winery in Argentina, with French vines carried over the Andes by his daughter Ascensión.
Two hundred years later, in his isolated little valley, Raúl still hews to the old ways – wild yeast, organic grapes, unfiltered, unoaked.
This RD is enigmatic on the nose, but full bodied on the palate with classic Calchaquí berries and herbs.
Your Bottle of 2018 Sunal Ilógico Criolla (8,858 ft)
This 8,858 ft. vintage is not a malbec but a criolla, with grapes from a different part of Luracatao known as Cuchi Pampa.
The Criolla Chica grape was first brought to Argentina by the Spanish Conquistadors over 300 years ago, making it the original Argentinean grape.
To refresh your memory on winemaker Augustin Lanus… he’s all about letting the landscape speak for itself, which is why Sunal is unfiltered and unadulterated with flavor or color enhancers. He even insists on wild yeasts instead of commercial, lab-grown yeasts (which most other wines use).
A lighter red with a nose of dates, dried roses, and spice; a “Beaujolais of the Andes” if you will. This is a perfect alternative to a white wine on a warm summer’s day.
Your Bottle of 2019 Francisco Puga y Familia L’Amitie (Blended Altitudes)
If you’ve had Puramun, you’ll find a similar love of craft in winemaker Francisco “Paco” Puga’s personal wine, the 2019 Francisco Puga y Familia L’Amitié.
This wine is a love letter to Puga’s days working the misty vines of Burgundy where he began his career. Since then he has become one of Argentina’s top winemakers, known for his work at 90+ point wineries Amalaya and Colomé
Already celebrated in the industry (the 2018 got a 94% from Decanter), L’Amitié takes grapes from four different locations in northern Argentina – from the high dry terroirs of the Calchaquí to the green lowlands of Tucumán (Argentina’s Scotland).
With a fresh herby nose, followed by black fruit on the palate, and a long oaky finish. The camphor wood and smoke provide an unmistakable Calchaquí fingerprint.
L’Amitié – as with Puramun – is a true winemaker’s wine.
Your Bottle of 2020 Piloto de Pruebo (5,500-6,000 ft)
At an altitude of 6,889 ft, in the town of Cafayate - which Forbes aptly named “Northern Argentina’s Little Big Wine Town” - we find the Arca Yaco farm where winemaker Matias Etchart harvested malbec and cabernet sauvignon grapes. He named the resulting wine Amar y Vivir (96 pts; Atkin) – a reference to an old bolero song sung by his uncle Arnaldo.
With a nose of wet earth, black fruit and wood, followed by tobacco, licorice, and pepper on the palate, Amar y Vivir is a wine to remind us, even in these times, that life is to be lived.
Your Bottle of 2018 Arca Yaco Amar y Vivir (6,889 ft)
Just down the road in Cafayate is a wine with no old family vineyard behind it. No tradition dating back centuries. Piloto de Prueba (5,500 to 6,000 ft) is an upstart in this high altitude wine town.
To our knowledge, this 2020 is only the second vintage ever released. The name “piloto de prueba” translates to “test pilot.” The project was supposed to be a mere experiment for winemaker Daniel Guillen and his friends. Today his is a label to watch closely.
Why all the buzz? Tannat. It’s a grape from southwestern France typically found in Uruguay. Yet, word on the street is that it may just be “the next malbec.” While malbec remains king in the Andes, the tannat in this 2020 vintage makes a compelling case: wrapping the malbec and cab sauv in a rich, dark chocolate.
Open a bottle on a cold winter’s evening and just try to escape this wine’s warming embrace.
Your Bottle of 2017 Atypico (93 pts)
Att 6,069 ft, sits a wine from even further south of Cafayate on Ruta 40 in the town of Tolombon.
There, 10-year-old cabernet sauvignon vines struggle in a soil of sand and stone before an early harvest (the reflective heat from the stony soil matures the cab sauv grapes faster than usual), resulting in the 2017 Atypico (93 pts; Atkin).
With blueberry and black olive on the nose; balsamic, mint, and thyme on the palate; and a balanced mouthfeel with a long finish… both tree selection (for the barrels) and grape harvest were in alignment for the 2016 vintage. It was superb.
Will this 2017 surpass it?
6 Bottles of Extreme Altitude Argentine Wines...
(including the 8,858 ft. 2018 Sunal Criolla)...
Shipped (free) Right To Your Doorstep...
You might assume these bottles are expensive...
Not at all... for the simple reason that we don’t pay retail... and neither will you.
Americans have been trained to think that a good wine must be more expensive.
But that’s simply not the case.
Let’s say a bottle costs $100... how much of that $100 is actually paying the wine?
About $20. That’s it.
The rest? Marketing costs and the dreaded “3-tier system”... a legal framework left over from Prohibition that basically guarantees three levels of mark-up (not including taxes) on any bottle you buy in the US.
I’m able to bypass that system.. it’s one of the many perks I enjoy as head of America’s only wine partnership, called The Bonner Private Wine Partnership.
We’re a private group of about 1,000 wine lovers who source seldom-imported foreign wines directly... without the usual middlemen, bad wine, or inflated pricing.
All year round, Diego, Barry, and me scour the globe for great wine, making deals directly with vineyards... mostly small batch places just like Sunal...
And that brings me to the wines I’d like to send to your doorstep today.
Your bottle of 2019 Tacuil RD (8,198 ft - 93 pts)... your bottle of 2018 Sunal Ilógico Criolla (8,858 ft) from 100-year-old vines... your bottle of 2019 Francisco Puga y Familia L’Amitié from one of Argentina's top winemakers, "Paco" Puga... your bottle of 2020 Piloto de Prueba (5,550-6,000 ft) from the grape considered "the next malbec"... your bottle of 2018 Arca Yaco Amar y Vivir (6,889 ft) named Top 6% of Wines in the World (Vivino 2016)... and your bottle of 2017 Atypico (6,069 ft - 93 pts).
And there’s something else I want to give you today, too.
While you wait for your collection, you’ll receive two special, exclusive e-books, written especially for club members by top international sommelier, Nigel Tollerman.
Nigel is a certified sommelier from Argentina’s top Escuela Argentina de Sommeliers. He has appeared on the Food Network and National Geographic.
I think you’ll find these e-books both fun to read and highly educating...
As a fellow wine adventurer, they’re yours FREE to read and access the instant you sign up...
You’ll also receive a tasting video with veteran Bordeaux winemaker Julien Miquel.
Julien has made wines all over the world, including at Chateau Margaux, perhaps the most famous winery in France.
He’ll take you through a virtual tasting for three of your wines making you an expert in Argentine wine by the time your bottles arrive.
Okay, so how much is a quarterly membership to the Bonner Private Wine Partnership going to cost?
Well, as I said earlier, a single case of the Calchaquí wine goes for $450... and they sell out an entire vintage in less than 24 hours...
And I’ve seen bottles of a certain high-altitude wine being sold for as much as $598 for a single bottle (that would be over $3,000 for a collection of six!)...
(which is crazy because that certain wine actually has lower point scores than other bottles included in your collection)
But you won’t spend several thousand dollars here... you won’t pay $450... or even $300...
You’ll pay just $199 for your first quarter with the club (shipping is on us!)
Your 100% Money Back Guarantee
(and no, you don’t have to send back the wine)
If you don’t love your extreme altitude Argentine wines, you have 30 days to request a refund.
And you don’t even have to send the remaining bottles back.
Yes, you could drink every single bottle and ask for a refund. There’s no way we’d be able to tell.
But we’re confident that you’ll love what you get and want to stick around for more!
After your $199 introductory shipment, subsequent shipments will be billed at our normal fee of $249... but there is NO obligation. We will let you know when your bottles are ready to ship and you can cancel at any time!
So...interested in sampling great wine at zero risk?
Well if you’re still reading, I’m going to take a wild guess that the answer is “YES!”
Simply click in the BIG ORANGE BUTTON to get started...
You’ll enter your address, fill out the forms on the next page and then we’ll ship you your wine. It’s that simple.
Here’s what your box will look like:
Once you’ve got your box, go ahead and open the secure packaging (no bottles “wrapped” in thin paper cardboard here)...
Pop open a bottle... and let the journey begin...
Click below to get started:
Sincerely,
Will Bonner