Bodega Valle Arriba La Criollita – 2020

6,500 Feet Elevation
3,000 Bottles Produced
Criolla Chica

In the far north of the Calchaquí Valley, between 6,500 and almost 10,000 feet above sea level, are several micro-valleys, known locally as Valle Arriba. Since 2007, the Bodega Valle Arriba team has been studying each corner of this region, seeking to convey the exclusivity and originality of the Calchaquí Valley landscape through small batches vinified by Raúl Dávalos, sixth-generation wine-maker of Salta (and the man behind Partnership favorites Mayuco, RD, Unoak, and Doña Ascensión).

“La Criollita” celebrates the criolla chica grape, which is historically very important in Argentina; it was the first grape that Spanish mission priests planted in the country, and has been growing in Salta since the 16th century. Over the centuries abandoned plots went feral and spun off hybrids innumerable. Thus criolla has become a catch-all term for “we don’t know what it is or who planted it but it’s been here longer than we have.” Criolla chica tends to make lighter wines, so it was an interesting challenge for Raúl to create something fine, complex, and ageworthy