Altos La Cienaga

High altitude wine in Colalao del Valle 

Some time ago, at the outstanding Álvaro Arismendi's school restaurant near Tafí del Valle, we tasted the Altos La Ciénaga tri-varietal upon the chef's recommendation.

Since then we knew it was a must to meet its maker, so on a trip back to Salta on Route 40 we stopped in Colalao del Valle, on the Tucumán side of the Calchaquíes Valleys.

In the north of Argentina it is usual for Google Maps to get confused, so when it marked the point of the winery on the corner of the square we were incredulously reluctant to trust the supposed universal know-it-all. But since it was not a matter of wasting the opportunity, we decided to consult at the pharmacy. It was there where we were told that we would indeed find the "office" of Altos La Cienaga in that small door of the old house.

Lucrecia, Rolo Díaz's sister, the winemaker in charge of the remarkable Tucumán winery, opened the door for us as the night approached. We thought she would surely send us away until another opportunity, but without hesitation she called him on the phone and told him about our visit. It wasn't even ten minutes before the charming winemaker showed up. We appreciated his story with the same intensity as we did his trivarietal cult wine that night in Arismendi. Rolo is such a valuable, genuine and enriching character that the minutes flew by with him.

It was getting dark, but Lucrecia unfolded a white tablecloth as if she had known us all our lives, while Rolo opened his incredible Syrah 2021 harvest, inviting us to taste it with him. How could we not honor such a hospitable offer!

During that hour and a half Rolo shared with @tripticity_ his life story and that of Altos La Cienaga. There are four productive hectares, but he has the project to add two more, through a water reservoir system. All irrigation on the farm is exclusively by irrigation ditch. Located about twenty kilometers from Colalao, on the slopes of a hill, the wine is produced where his father taught him the secrets of grape growing when he was just a child.

Bell pepper, anise and cumin were planted in those lands, so the soil -he said- preserves those defining notes.

When asked about his favorite, he replied that they all please him, so it is impossible for him to choose a spoiled one.

Few people know that he is an enologist technician, since at the age of fifty he began to study formally, although perhaps his knowledge is so solid that he has acquired it through experience and years of training, to the point of saying that "in each harvest one knows how the vintage is going to turn out".

Then he told us that he harvests late, around March 20 each year, because the syrah takes a long time to be ready.

His wine is almost organic. He only uses ant killer because, as he responded to a consultation at a conference of experts, he still uses it because "it is difficult to kill the ants one by one". Apart from this minor detail, his wine is otherwise one of the most natural you can find.

After that memorable talk, we chose the bottles that @tripticity_'s little cellar was going to nourish from that visit and we left for Cafayate, with the satisfaction of having met a colossal human being, plus the joy of having shared his wine at his table, no less. 

Before the last greeting, another great answer from Rolo: How many years of aging does your wine have, we asked him. He looked at us with complicity and affirmed: "Wine lasts until it is finished", as a last teaching that life should be lived with intensity in the moment. 

Thank you Rolo and Lucrecia for such kindness and exemplarity!