The day begins; harvest season is in full swing. The sun and the moon meet under the same sky, one rising in splendour from the plains, the other edging down towards the Andes range. El día comienza. Estamos en Vendimia. Como dos caras de una misma moneda el sol y la luna se encuentran…
The Challenge of Planting Jardín Altamira | El Desafío de plantar el Viñedo Jardín Altamira
On Monday Sept. 18th, 2017, after six years of struggle against all odds, we started planting vines in our Jardín Altamira estate. Turning a wild piece of land into a vineyard is no easy task, and its completion has required the utmost dedication of all the Altos Las Hormigas team. One of the leaders in…
Jardín Altamira dressed in white | Nuestro Jardín Altamira se vistió de blanco
Planting a vineyard is a leap of faith, a bet that a financial analyst would never approve; more so in today Argentina, with planting costs above those of France or Italy for that matter. But the Team of Ants has never been shy about taking big risks, not in 1995 when we started a company…
2017 Harvest Report | Reporte de Cosecha 2017
All in all we can declare ourselves happy with the 2017 vintage, after a 2016 that was arguably 50% short in quantities of fine varieties in Argentina. In 2017 the climate transition from “El Niño” to “La Niña” pushed temperatures creating heat waves during most of January. Following our belief in early harvest we started…
Comenzó el desmonte en la Finca de Altamira | More news on our Altamira Estate
Water is life, and more so in Mendoza. And finally the well has spilled the precious water in our Altamira estate, the Uco Valley property to be planted in 2017. El agua es vida, y mucho más en Mendoza. Y finalmente el pozo de nuestra Finca en Altamira nos dio agua! Ahora nuestros proyectos se…
2016 Harvest Report | Reporte de Cosecha 2016
Texts by Leonardo Erazo – Winemaker In the wine world some years are remembered way more than others, 2016 in Mendoza will definitely be a much remembered year!!! This harvest has been defined mainly by the low average temperatures which made it a cool year. This is unusual for Mendoza, which is typically dominated by sunny days, high…
The 2016 Harvest…so far| Atravesando la Vendimia 2016
The 2016 Harvest will be remembered due to its challenges. An atypical rainy year in Mendoza, thanks to the whimsical “El Niño” current that has put vintners and winemakers to the test. This vintage can deliver great, different wines… wines with the potential to be extraordinary. But how the 2016 wines will turn out, we still…
Revealing Potential| Revelando el Potencial
When Alberto Antonini and Attilio Pagli tasted Malbec 20 years ago, Argentina’s current key grape was at its historical lowest. Recognizing it as Mendoza’s bonanza, they conceived Altos Las Hormigas as a Malbec specialist since they did not think it was possible to learn about the Argentine expression of Merlot, Cabernet, Syrah, etc. at the…
Wine Spectator Top100 : A Meaningful Award | Un Gran Reconocimiento
For the fourth time in our history, Altos Las Hormigas is given to enter the prestigious Wine Spectator’s Top 100. Uco Valley’s Malbec Reserve 2011 ranks 42nd among a selection of the most exciting wines currently on the market. Por 4ta vez en nuestra historia , la prestigiosa revista Wine Spectator nos destaco en su…
A New Line in our History| Una linea nueva en nuestra historia
This week Altos Las Hormigas released the first wine of its new line “Appellation”: Altos Las Hormigas Appellation Vista Flores 2009. It was presented to the press, distributors and sommeliers during their annual Terroir Day in the Four Seasons Hotel in Buenos Aires. Altos Las Hormigas lanzó esta semana el primer vino de su línea “Appellation”: Altos Las…
In Concert | En Concierto
In many regards, thoughtful winemaking could be compared to jazz music. It always starts with an old tune: ancient Altamira or high Vista Flores, composed long ago by the Andes; and requires good instruments: a gentle destemmer to avoid wrong notes, a gravity tank filler for delicate pieces, and foudres to give it resonance without…
Working with Gravity | Trabajando con Gravedad
It was a very happy day when this giant piece of steel arrived at the Bodega. At first glance it may not scream TERROIR! but soon, it will. Fue un día muy feliz cuando este pedazo de acero gigante llegó a la Bodega. A primera vista, quizas no grite TERROIR! pero pronto lo hará. It is…
Arrival of the Malbec Reserve | Llegada del Malbec Reserve
See those little red bins? You might recognize them from the previous post celebrating the harvest of Dyonisos Vineyard. Puede visualizar los tachos rojos? Es posible reconocerlos desde el post anterior donde celebramos la cosecha de la finca Dyonisos. These are the bins we affectionately refer to as amados tachos, or beloved bins. Whenever you…
Beloved Bins of Dyonisos | Los Amados Tachos de Dyonisos
Despite the million tiny details that run through the mind of agronomist Mauricio Gonzalez and his team during harvest, there is one in particular that rules the rest for Harvest 2013: respect the terroir. A pesar de los millones de detalles pequeños que pasan por la mente del ingeniero agrónomo Mauricio González y su equipo…
Biodynamic Field Day | Un Día Biodinámica
It was a big day at Altos Las Hormigas, for some of us the first day of hands-on work with Alan York and a full immersion in biodynamic viticulture. Fue un gran día en Altos Las Hormigas, para algunos de nosotros el primer día de trabajo de cerca con Alan York y una inmersión total…
The New Vineyard is Planted: The Ants are Thankful
How cool is it to plant a new vineyard in a virgin, previously untouched site? Where in the world can you be part of such a unique experience, and still expect to make serious wine? Mendoza is that place. Qué tan bueno es plantar un viñedo nuevo en un sitio virgen, sin la influencia de…
Planning A Vineyard | Planear Un Viñedo
Over the past 5 years as we defined the Terroir Project, we’ve shifted our philosophy to focus more on making site-specific, personal wines, in an increasingly more organic, biodynamic way. As you might guess, this is a slow, patient endeavor that has required adopting many new practices and gradually converting our team, our vineyards and our…
Budbreak | Brotación
There is something hopeful and satisfying about budbreak. Vitality returns to the vineyards and with a tiny speck of green, the master wheels are turning. It’s time. Hay algo esperanzador y satisfactorio en la brotación. La vitalidad vuelve a los viñedos y con una nota de color verde, las ruedas empiezan a girar. Todo comienza….
A Little Secret | Un Secretito
Locals in Mendoza affectionately refer to the time between harvests as the “low season.” The days are short and quiet, the temperature is cool, the pace is slow and the vineyards are bare… except for a couple telling signs of last year’s life. La gente local en Mendoza cariñosamente se refiere al tiempo entre cosechas…
Altos Las Hormigas, Hoy
Cada año al final de la cosecha recuerdo y pienso en la cosecha anterior y todas las que hemos pasado. No hay fortuna más grande que seguir, después de diecisiete años de desempeño, gozando de una genuina y espontanea motivación al trabajo diario, este es el mayor de los regalos que tenemos que agradecer a Mendoza y…
Wild Yeasts Gone Wild | Las Levaduras Rebeldes
Here at ALH we believe in a certain way of winemaking: listen to the grapes and follow them on their personal and beautiful journey to become wine. We choose our grapes plot-by-plot, and we work individually with each batch of grapes, in its own tank, its own personality. Every day, twice a day, we taste…
Multicultural Blind Tasting: Where Do We Stand?
The technical team at Altos Las Hormigas is constantly tasting; comparative tastings, vertical tastings, blind tasting… they all help define our vision and goals. The impetus for this month’s multicultural wine tasting was based on a curiosity in comparing what Argentina is capable of producing, to those well-known wines of Montalcino and Rioja, areas of…
Hormigas in a Pit | Hormigas en una Calicata
“Como no entendemos NADA ! Lo queremos saber TODO! Calicatas y mas calicatas!” “We do not understand anything! We want to know everything! Pits and more pits!” -Mauricio Gonzalez, Viticulturist Just this past week we unveiled the new 2007 Single Vineyard Vista Flores Malbec, which will be released in the coming months. It is beautiful…intriguing…complex….
Hands On Harvest: A Family Affair
When it’s time for harvest, it’s time! Saturday is family day, everyone helps in the making of our Single Vineyard wines… even the little ants. The spirit is high during a long day working together, family and all. Everyone understands the importance of this step for the quality of the single vineyard wines…. The full…
Vista Previa: FULL DAY TERROIR | Preview: FULL DAY TERROIR
El 22 marzo, los periodistas y sommeliers de Buenos Aires y Santiago siguieron Pedro Parra y las Hormigas para una día FULL TERROIR. On March 22nd, the top journalists and sommeliers from Buenos Aires and Santiago joined Pedro Parra and Team of Ants for a Full Day of Terroir. Siga Harvest 2012 para todos las detalles.|Follow the Harvest 2012 for a full recap.
Malbec y Tapas: Raíces Españolas, Estilo Argentino
La armonización o “maridaje”, consiste en lograr la mejor combinación entre el menú y el vino. Un maridaje perfecto debe mejorar ambos, el vino y la comida. Es un juego de equilibrio y a veces, instinto. Se necesita solamente buen gusto para disfrutar. Estos son algunos de nuestros maridajes preferidos con los vinos que consideramos ideales…
Harvesting Vista Flores | Cosechando a Vista Flores
Today we harvest Vista Flores, a region tucked directly below the Andes in the Uco Valley. Contrary to the warm, red and orange landscape of the desert-like Lujan de Cuyo, this quintessential Mendoza scenery feels as though it may have been plucked straight from a storybook. Mountains tower over vines, the snow-capped peaks just barely visibly through…
Full Moon Harvest | Cosecha de Luna Llena
Update from Leonardo Erazo, Enologist: “The arrival of our first potential Single Vineyard of the harvest 2012! Trucks carefully arrive, all in line, disciplined and orderly like ants marching… …stunning grapes deserve LOTS of work from the whole team, getting them as clean as possible… …while day becomes dusk, dusk becomes night. Time forms its own rules…
Microvinification | Microvinificación
Microvinification is a winemaking technique used often for experimental batches of wine where the wine is fermented in small, specialized vats. Microvinification allows a viticulturist to express the most natural, unadultered characteristics of a single terroir, or vineyard block.
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