El Montañista "Corte de Blancas" Calingasta Valley, Argentina 2025
FROM JOSÉ PASTOR: THE WINE: Corte de Blancas is Torrentés Sanjuanino and Torrontés Mendocino (with small amounts of Malvasia and Maticha) from the 80-year-old Paraje Hilario vineyard, planted on quartz-rich colluvial rocks at 1500m in the foothills of the Andes mountains. The grapes were hand harvested, destemmed, and macerated on their skins for the duration of alcoholic fermentation in concrete. This wine was never pressed: just the free run juice was rested in concrete for 7 months before bottling, where it formed a veil of flor. THE PRODUCER: Francis​co (Pancho) Bugallo and Nuria Añó Gargiulo, the couple behind El Montañista, started farming vines and making wine in Argentina's Calingasta Valley in 2011, fresh out of university. Pancho had studied Agricultural Engineering in Mendoza, and Nuria industrial design. Their first project, Cara Sur, started at the same time. 10 years on, in 2021, the opportunity to farm and make wine from a very special vineyard of 80+ year-old heritage varieties - Paraje Hilario - prompted them to start El Montañista. Pancho and Nuria work simply in their cellar, working with concrete vessels, spontaneous fermentations, and without temperature controls. The results are delicate and poised wines that express the long history of vine growing and winemaking in the Calingasta Valley, and the precipitous elevations that differentiate the area.