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.

Lake Viedma

Today, we would like to be there...

L'affaire du Grand Hotel

Bariloche, 1935. The great Argentine Architect Alejandro Bustillo won a competition to design a Grand Hotel in the brand new National Park Nahuel Huapi. The idea was to attract wealthy tourists to this desolate location in Patagonia.

Three years later the Hotel was finished. More than 5,000 trees were chopped to be used in the construction of the building, entirely made of wood and stone. The level of comfort was unbelievable for the time: a Bank, a Post office, a Pharmacy, telegraph and a golf course. The grand opening was on New Year's Eve, 1938.

In 1939 the building was completely destroyed by a devastating fire. Rebuilt in a record one year, it became a symbol of winter holidays for years to come. The team in charge of the reconstruction included Jean-Michel Frank along Alejandro Bustillo. Frank was living in Argentina at the time and was in charge of the interiors as well as the design of furniture and lamps.

The hotel was closed in 1979 and was completely abandoned for years. Sold in 1993 to a private Group, it was revamped and once again became the Grand Hotel it was meant to be.

Patagonia on ice

If you want to see the glacier, you have to travel to the town of El Calafate.

And then you have to drive about 50 miles of an amazing road. You go around a huge lake, cross a river, see mountains and enter the gates of a National Park. Then, as you go up into a curve, all of a sudden you get this amazing panoramic view...The glacier is there. Like floating over the freezing water of the lake. It is the Perito Moreno.

Of all the mountains of ice in the National Park, this is the only one visible from land. But not only you see the glacier, you HEAR it. Like a living being, it cracks and roars, and when the sun hits the beast, it melts and pieces of ice fall into the lake...The sound of Nature, in surround sound.

After contact with Nature has been reestablished, you feel like going back to your hotel and warm up. For us, it was Los Notros. Right on the lake. The best location. Right THERE.