If Pirú wine had a face, it would be the complexion of a gaucho. Leathery, tanned by the sun, furrowed like the dust-dry high plains of northwest Argentina. «Escuchame,» he would say: «listen carefully»! He would then gaze into the campfire with lively eyes and philosophise about how insignificant life can seem with the mighty peaks of the Andes towering above you - like the Cerro de los Siete Colores, into whose fading flanks the vines of Pirú entwine their roots. Different mineral layers immerse the massif in fantastical shades of colour, from ash grey to metallic black to Bordeaux red. The gaucho would tell of emigrants who brought their knowledge of winemaking with them across the Atlantic. First and foremost those from Italy. In terms of winemaking, they are what Argentina recently became on the football pitch: World Champions! Then the French. It's no coincidence that Argentina likes to celebrate Buenos Aires as the «Paris of the Southern Hemisphere». It owes its paradise grape, Malbec, to the Grande Nation. But it takes a Latino temperament from Argentina to tame this tannin-strong variety, which is the wild mustang of grapes. Pirú's wines combine influences from terroir and technology to create emotional, muscular wines with intense fruit, whose features are unmistakably influenced by the Andes but also reflect European finesse.
