Emma’s Note: Emma Walsh here, managing editor of the Diary.
Regular Diary readers will recall Bill’s nine-month stay at his ranch in Argentina last year. Although enforced by the coronavirus lockdowns, his stay was largely pleasurable, due, in part, to his supply of malbec wine from his vineyard there.
Below, Bill’s son Will tells the story of how the Bonner family came to own a vineyard way out on the frontier of northwestern Argentina…
Come with me on a journey 5,000 miles away… to a land where campfires burn late into the night as cowboys doze off under the stars…
…where women work looms under the early dawn’s first light…
…where the nearest city is six hours away across a jagged mountain landscape…
…where heaven and earth seem to become one on a clear, boundless horizon…
…where a small brotherhood of winemakers produces one of the highest-altitude vintages in the world.
Adventure Beckons
Back in 2005, I got a phone call from my father, Bill Bonner.
As his Diary readers know well, my father is… not exactly your average retiree. Now in his 70s, he usually spends most of the year traveling the world… sometimes snatching up property on a whim…
So when he told me that he’d found something special in Argentina… I knew I was in for an adventure.
It turned out that “something special” was in a place known as the Calchaquí Valley… located way out on the frontier of northwestern Argentina.
I had to use satellite imagery to look it up…
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Argentina’s Calchaquí Valley
When I got there (it took me three days), I was swept away by the beauty of the place… and how it literally felt like the end of the Earth…
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At the end of the Earth…
Secret Vineyard
But it wasn’t just beautiful… the Calchaquí also has a secret…
It is home to one of the highest-altitude wine regions in the world… at over 8,000 feet… and a unique microclimate found nowhere else on Earth.
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A Hidden Vineyard in the Calchaquí – 8,421 feet above the world
For 200 years, a small brotherhood of winemakers has been perfecting a type of malbec unlike any other you’ve ever had (even if you’ve had Argentine wine before).
Their secret?
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Extreme altitudes (over 8,000 feet) that push grapes to the brink of survival
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UV light 80% more intense than in Bordeaux
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Nightly temperature swings of up to 70 degrees
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Irrigation with pure, nutrient-rich snowmelt
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No dyes (which are more common than you think), oak extract, filtering, or added sugar.
Making wine in the Calchaquí is not so much a career as a calling. It’s too remote. The yield at such high altitudes is too small. The roads are often impassable. And the nearest port is 1,000 miles away.
And yet, year after year, through drought, dust storms, flash floods, and pandemics… the winemakers of the Calchaquí endure, thumbing their noses at the brink of oblivion.
How much longer till they call it quits and move down to Mendoza (like 85% of Argentine winemakers)? No one knows…
That’s why I started bringing these wines to the U.S. – some for the first time ever.
Each extreme-altitude bottle is a little piece of this hidden land… and a chance to take a journey to the edge of the world.
Cheers,
Will Bonner
Bonner Private Wine Partnership
P.S. Care to taste extreme-altitude malbec 150 years in the making? Today, you can reserve some of the Calchaquí Valley’s greatest wines… brought straight to your doorstep.
Summer is officially here. And these wines are great for any outdoor plans! Perfect for sitting by the firepit at night in your backyard, entertaining on the patio, relaxing on the beach, or if you’re heading to the park…
You can reserve yours by clicking here (Supplies are limited and will sell out).
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