Casa Umbra Valle de Uco
High vine rows in the Valle de Uco.
Valle de Uco The high rows

History

Casa Umbra bottles three wines from these high vines: Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The varieties reached Mendoza long before the house, and the rows moved up toward the Andes.

  1. 1550s

    Vines in Mendoza

    Spanish settlers brought Vitis vinifera into the Argentine interior in the sixteenth century. Mendoza was one of the places they planted.

  2. 1853

    Cabernet and Merlot

    On 17 April 1853 Mendoza established the Quinta Normal and brought Michel Aimé Pouget from Chile. He planted French cuttings, among them Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec. Casa Umbra bottles the first two and not the third.

  3. 1870s

    The vines stayed

    Phylloxera did not clear the Mendoza vineyards the way it cleared Europe. Those plantings stayed in the ground.

  4. 1990s

    Pinot Noir, higher up

    Growers planted higher in the Valle de Uco, under the cordillera, where the nights are colder. Pinot Noir ripens on the highest of those rows, which is why it is the third wine.

  5. Now

    Three wines

    Casa Umbra bottles Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon from those high vines. Nothing else is offered.