Achaval-Ferrer

Santiago Achaval was studying accountancy in California in the 1980s when his heart was stolen by the quality of wines being produced there and was convinced that wines of a similar quality could be produced in his homeland – Argentina. Fast forward to 1995 when Santiago had found the right sites, he teamed up with a few Italian friends; Manuel Ferrer, Tiziano Siviero, and famed oenologist Roberto Cipresso, and Achaval Ferrer was born. They focused on terroir above all else, specialising in vineyards with ancient, ungrafted vines, up to a century old, convinced that these low yielding vines produced grapes of exceptional complexity and concentration. This specific site selection, coupled with a hands-off minimal intervention approach, produces wines with Old World elegance and concentrated, New World fruit. Their debut wine, the 1999 Finca Altamira, exploded onto the scene, becoming the first Argentinian wine to ever achieve five stars from Decanter magazine.