Carlos Arizu

Carlos's Story

"I am a third generation winemaker. My grandfather started the Arizu winery in 1888. At one point it boasted of having the largest block of vineyards in one place: 4600 hectares.

In my twenties I was in charge of exporting the Arzu wines in the seventies. Old English wine lovers might remember the Valroy label.

After the family winery was sold in 1978 I marched to California and worked in different vineyards there. Once I turned 40 (1990), I felt it was time to start my own pet project.

It had to be different and by then I had fallen in love...with high altitude wines. It took a while to find Fiambal. A valley nested in the Andean mountains in Catamarca, NW Argentina . Again, love at first sight. Some say this place is one of the most remote places on earth and I believe them but this is my dream location for a winery even with it's extreme challenges! Firstly how to embrace the scarce irrigation water through the dunes of this high altitude desert that ranges from 4500 to 6000 feet to deal with the intense midday sunlight and secondly how still to protect the vines from the frosts associated with the cool nights!

I couldn't of managed this without my good friend Pedro Vicien, I suppose some Wine God pushed Pedro into my way. An unlikely partnership. Pedro is 91 and adventurous enough to walk with us since the year 2000 in this high -adventure project. My key philosophy is to make unique wines, as my father used to tell me "if you make wines like everybody else does, you might as well stay at home". This environment in which I work ensures my wines are far from ordinary!"