Follow the development of one of the wine world’s most extreme territories, as Patricio Tapia picks his favourite bottles from Argentina’s rugged far north...
													
																																		
													It looks like the moon. A rocky surface, intersected by mountains of sharp peaks and lands of all shades of grey. There is almost no life here, beyond whatever manages to grow next to the rivers that wend their way down the mountains.
Although a desert region, like Mendoza, the Calchaquí Valleys in Argentina’s far northwest are a world of their own, a land with 300 days of sun, higher than 2,000m, with condors soaring up above – huge birds with a three-metre wingspan, the colossi of the Andes, observing from great height some of the most extreme vineyards in the world.
Scroll down for Tapia’s top Calchaquí Valley reds
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Patricio’s top Calchaquí Valley red wines:
    
        
    {}
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23721","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23722","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23723","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23724","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23725","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23726","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23727","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23728","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23729","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23730","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23731","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23732","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23733","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23734","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23735","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23736","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23737","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                    
                
                    
{"wineId":"23738","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
                 
            
                
    {}
     
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