I wanna hold your hand

We were invited to the launch party to celebrate the release of Marina Frederking's album, VERME.
It was a fantastic meeting of beautiful people, good food and open bar that lasted well into the wee hours.
Marina is an extremely talented and sexy artist, and in this album she is showing that a cover version is much, much more than a new performance of a popular song. She is indeed showing her true colors in all 10 tracks, really touching our souls with her warm voice. Our pick? "I wanna hold your hand"...

You can get an idea of how exciting the performance was clicking on this link
http://soundcloud.com/marinafrederking/sets/verme/

Marina Frederking
VERME

Patagonia, land of dreams

Everything started with a glass of red wine. Piero Incisa della Rocchetta (of the italian family behind Sassicaia, the great Super Tuscan wine) tasted in New York a fantastic Pinot Noir from a vineyard in Patagonia and he fell in love. It was a bottle of Humberto Canale by the danish winemaker Hans Vinding-Diers. Amazed by the quality of wines Hans was being able to make, he decided to start his own winery.

After a long and difficult search, he found a nearly abandoned vineyard in the Province of Rio Negro, with Pinot Noir vines that were over 70 years old (something unusual, because Argentina is land of Malbec). The funny thing is, the vineyard's owner initially refused to sell Piero the land. He told him that any commercial venture would fail. Piero respectfully ignored the prediction of bankruptcy and made a full commitment to follow his dream by buying the vineyard. Bodega Chacra was born.

The small vineyard from 1932 is the foundation for the winery. There are also parcels planted in 1955 and 1967, and another one with new plantings. Harvested manually, the vines are fermented naturally in large round cement vats with the minimum of intervention before being put into the oak barrels. Fermentation takes place naturally in the following six months, and the wines are then left undisturbed before being bottled without any filtration.

The results? Three of the most extraordinary and unique wines in Argentina: Chacra 32, Chacra 55 and Barda. They are easily the best Pinot Noir outside of Burgundy.

Andree Putman once said : "To not dare is to have already lost. We should seek out ambitious, even unrealistic projects…because things only happen when we dream".

We couldn't agree more.

Alrio

One of our latest projects is the sales showroom and model apartment for ALRIO, the most important real estate development in Argentina.

It comprises five residential buildings, office buildings, a shopping mall, a stadium, an open air Auditorium, a new park...the list goes on and on.

Alrio is located in Vicente Lopez, just outside the city, next to the river. A link between the upscale northern suburbs and Downtown Buenos Aires, this complex is really changing a whole area of the city and giving new meaning to the relationship between neighbours and their river, the big brown Rio de la Plata.

Alrio Sales Office

Avenida del Libertador 350, Piso 11

Vicente Lopez

I love cafe

After being in New York for so many years, we know a thing or two about coffee shops, cafes or whatever you like to call them. Considering the lack of space in Manhattan, they tend to be small, very small or tiny.

Downtown, where the charming ones we like are located, around Tribeca, Nolita and further east, we can find our favorite places to enjoy capuccinos and some sweets.

So, when a group of three friends decided to open the Argentine version of the kind of places we love (the Downtown cafe), it was very clear for us the way to go. Small? No problem, a few tables and chairs, a banquette, a couple of counters... We also had this idea of throwing a bit of London in the mix, especially because one of the owners spends part of the year in England with her polo player husband. And she adores London.

And then it was the color...Everything in the store under 3 feet high is painted red, everything above that is a shade of old parchment very shiny.

"I love cafe", that's the name of this magical place. Coffee to go and fresh food, good music, nice people in the heart of Recoleta. What's not to love?

Rodriguez Peña 1714

Buenos Aires

View from the Top

First there was the view. Then the apartment, in a nondescript building from the 70's. Nothing special about it, no old parquet or marble fireplaces this time...Just a boring and plain box...but what a view!. Overlooking Palermo park, the rose gardens, the Planetarium, the race tracks, the river...

The social area is on the 13th floor, upstairs the bedrooms and bathrooms, and then one more flight of stairs and voila!, you are in the barbecue room, the "quincho"...that sacred place where Argentines get together to enjoy the best beef in the World. Actually is more of a ritual, that ancestral thing of enjoying your family and friends around food and wine...You know, latin blood that is.

Eat, love, drink. And in this particular case, with a view to kill for.

French touch it's done

Our mission has been accomplished, the owner moved in with her family and everything is under control.

The charm of these old apartments is undeniably argentine. We like of think of it as "parisian-meets-the pampas", an unique combination of Old World tradition blended with the unique lifestyle that you can only find in this part of the Americas.