Wines of Argentina

Terrazas de los Andes is a high elevation specialist producer of super premium wines, based in Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina.

In the late 1950s, the LVMH subsidiary Moët & Chandon sent its Chief Winemaker, Renaud Poirier, to Latin America to investigate the potential of the region for producing world-class wines. After traveling throughout the region, Poirier visited Luján de Cuyo, in the province of Mendoza. Highly impressed with the local conditions for winemaking, and the presence of unique high elevation vineyards, Poirier and Moët & Chandon decided to launch its first subsidiary vineyards ever outside of France.

Following decades of successful sparkling wine production, in 1999 Moët Hennessy Wine Estates and Bodegas Chandon Argentina inaugurated the Terrazas de los Andes winery, a still wines initiative based on the pairing of fine wine varietals to unique altitudes within Mendoza´s emblematic, snow-fed, high elevation vineyards.

The Terrazas de los Andes winery was launched following the restoration of an old Spanish style winery, established in 1898 by Sotero Arizu, one of the forefathers of Argentine winemaking. Arizu founded the winery in the heart of Perdriel, facing the impressive Cordon del Plata (a section of the Andes Mountain Range), where the cultivation of the best red grapes in the Province of Mendoza is concentrated.

Terrazas de los Andes has leveraged its 45 year history of experimentation with Mendoza microclimates, generated by tiered terraces at unique altitudes, to build a core wine philosophy based on Argentina´s primary country advantage in the world of winemaking: high elevation grape cultivation.

Unique among wine regions worldwide, altitude plays a key role for vineyards in Argentina as it impacts the temperature variation between day and night and favors the accumulation of certain aromatic and flavour components, especially the poliphenols responsible for the colour, body and structure of fine wines. With an emphasis on maximizing fruit expression, varietals have been carefully matched to each vineyard altitude: Chardonnay (3900 ft); Malbec (3500 ft); and, Cabernet Sauvignon (3200 ft).

Today, Terrazas de los Andes has made its mark on the international luxury wine market in 45 countries with the “Top Ranked Malbec from Argentina” over the past 10 years (1994-2004, Wine Spectator Top 100), twenty-one 90+ point, or 5 Star, rankings from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and Decanter, selected as a Top 20 Global Value Vintner, Wine Spectator (2005), and awarded with a Bordeaux Varietal Trophy, Decanter (2006).

Terrazas de los Andes is part of the Moët Hennessy Wine Estates group, which includes Cloudy Bay, Green Point, Domaine Chandon, Bodegas Chandon, and Newton Vineyard.