Terrazas

In the late 1950s, Moët & Chandon, a subsidiary of LVMH, sent Renaud Poirier, its Oenology Director, to Latin America to research the region’s potential for world-class wine production.

After traveling around the region, Poirier visited Luján de Cuyo, in Mendoza. Highly impressed by the local conditions for winemaking and the presence of excellent high elevation vineyards, Poirier and Moët & Chandon decided to set up its first ever vineyards outside France.

After decades of experiencing with sparkling wines production, in 1999, Moët Hennessy Wine Estates and Bodegas Chandon Argentina opened Terrazas de los Andes Winery - a varietal still-wines initiative based on its emblematic high-elevation vineyards, fed by the Andes meltwater.

Terrazas de los Andes Project came into being at an 1898 winery, which was fully restored. This winery used to belong to the Sotero Arizus, one of the forefathers of Argentine winemaking. Arizu founded the winery at the heart of Perdriel, facing the impressive Cordón del Plata (a section of the Andes Mountain Range), where the best red grapes of Mendoza are grown.

Terrazas de los Andes Winery was originally built with bricks made from Mendoza soil, using a basic mortar, lime and sand, as cement was not yet manufactured in Argentina. The contemporary building displays the typically Spanish-style archways, inspired in southern Spain.

Building upon 45 years of research and development on Mendoza’s terraced microclimates, Terrazas de los Andes has established a core wine philosophy based on Argentina’s primary advantage in the world of winemaking: vineyard cultivation at different elevations. Based on several years of research, and by growing grapes from the best areas in Mendoza, we identified which varietal was best suited for each of the areas and we were able to check which the ideal altitude to grow each varietal was.

Altitude plays a key role since it controls day/night temperature variations and favors the accumulation of certain aromatic and taste components, particularly polyphenols, which add color, body and structure to the wines.

In the late 90s, the special growing conditions and the quality of the wines attracted the well-known Chateau Cheval Blanc and resulted in a new project: Cheval des Andes. The expression of traditional Bordeaux varieties, grown in Argentine soil, with French savoir-faire for varietal blends, gave birth to this well-balanced and elegant blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Petit Verdot, with a significant aging potential as a collector’s wine.