Chacra has planted 0.31 hectares of Trousseau regrafted from Merlot that was planted in 2008, but the vines are not yet in production. For now, they continue with their range of Pinot Noir and two Chardonnays produced in conjunction with Jean Marc Roulot from Domaine Roulot in Meursault. As for the Pinot Noirs, 2017 was a warmish year with some really high peaks, but they changed the irrigation policy and gave the vines a lot less water than they used to; thus, the berries were smaller and ripened to perfection, and it could very well be the finest vintage they have produced to date. Proprietor Piero Incisa della Rocchetta told me that he thinks the improvement is all through work in the vineyards in general—not only irrigation—that they have changed and improved year after year.

I had the chance to taste the whites with Incisa and Roulot, and they took time to explain the project. They have been close friends for a long time, but Incisa wouldn't dare ask Roulot to do a wine in Patagonia. But when the opportunity arose, Roulot was thrilled to explore a different place without the constraints they have in Burgundy. So, after visiting Río Negro in the winter of 2016, they got everything ready to start in the 2017 vintage. Chacra had some old Merlot that was part of the deal when they bought the 1955 vineyard, and they had produced a Merlot in the past. However, it was not a wine that fit in their Pinot Noir-only portfolio, so those 40-year-old Merlot vines were regrafted to Chardonnay and Trousseau. By chance, when they did their soils study with terroir expert Pedro Parra from Chile, they found out that plot was the "filet mignon" of their vineyard. So they got very excited about it. They are now planting more Chardonnay and regrafting some more, as they have the idea to build a small separate winery just for the Chardonnay. In 2017, they made 50 barrels that were divided into two wines. They applied Roulot's vast experience with whites and his famous obsessive fine-tuning of the pressing to avoid obtaining harsh flavors or textures in his search for elegant and mineral wines. They have not yet discussed the size of the project, but perhaps the limit might be some 200 barrels. It's a really exciting development, and the wines go straight to the top of the hierarchy of white wines from Argentina. They also had the luck to start in a very good vintage. A development that is worth following.

The flat, dry Río Negro Valley on the northern end of Patagonia won’t strike anybody as a glamorous wine region. For one thing, apple and pear orchards, along with platoons of poplar trees, far outnumber grapevines. For another, the restaurants, hotels and the usual camp followers of the winemaking life are nowhere to be found. But glamour did not draw Piero Incisa della Rocchetta to the Río Negro. The old pinot noir vines did, along with promising soils, a sparkling climate and a dream of creating a self-sustaining wine estate the way his grandfather the Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta did in Italy 50 years ago. The marchese created Sassicaia, a paradigm-breaking cabernet blend that proved greatness could be achieved in Bolgheri, on the Tuscan coast. Eric Asimov, New York Times (Jun 2018)

In 2004, Piero Incisa della Rocchetta of Tenuta San Guido in Bolgheri, Italy bought this 2ha property, located in Patagonia's Rio Negro Valley. Originally planted in 1932, the site had been abandoned and required considerable work to revive it. It was decided early on to make the viticulture at Chacra a 'closed circuit' - producing its own compost and making biodynamic preparations in-house. The winery tracks the biodiversity of the vineyard and aims to capture the essence in the bottle.

'We are on a river bed in a plateau that is now a desert,' says Incisa della Rocchetta. 'Our nights are cold, allowing for complex aromas of Pinot to develop and also slowing down the grapes' maturation. Our days are long, and, coupled with the sun's strong luminosity, this ensures perfect ripeness. We benefit from an almost constant wind, which in turn cleanses the valley of pests and disease and prevents the formation of mould and fungus. This allows us to practice organic and biodynamic farming with ease.'

Treinta y Dos is named after the year the vineyard was planted - 1932. Grapes from ungrafted vines are picked early and whole bunch fermented in shallow cement vats with indigenous yeasts. The wine is then aged in used barriques and bottled with minimum suphur. Decanter World Wine Awards 2017 (Jun 2017)

Argentina hasn’t quite the range of pinot producers you find in Chile, but it does have a serious rival to Errázuriz for the best pinot estate in South America. The estate in question – Bodega Chacra – is in deepest Patagonia. Like so many good Argentine things, there’s an Italian influence: Chacra was started by Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, the grandson of the creator of the great Tuscan red, Sassicaia, and with winemaker Hans Vinding-Diers, he’s settled on a decidedly elegant house style in his three pinots, with the subtle smoke, potpourri and silk of Barda, the place to begin. David Williams, The Observer (Jan 2017)

Bodega Chacra has a fascinating, if slightly bizarre, history. The Rio Negro valley is essentially a 15-mile-wide glacial bed at about 750 m elevation in the middle of a desert. Thanks to the combination of altitude and latitude, there is marked diurnal temperature variation with summer nights averaging only 9 °C/48 °F that helps prolong the growing season. Rainfall is minimal but irrigation channels have been in place since the early nineteenth century. The region’s isolation helps to keep the air notably unpolluted. Thanks to the surrounding desert, there has never been phylloxera here so the vines are ungrafted.... (Read more here) Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (May 2015)

Bodega Chacra, for its part, creates a Pinot Noir like no other in my experience. “ The oldest vines date to 1932 and next oldest from 1955. Matt Kramer, The Wine Specator

Chacra represents the boutique of the boutique, turning out handcrafted, delicately styled Pinot Noirs that are worth the effort to find. James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator

Hands down, this is the finest Pinot Noir from South America that I’ve ever tasted, and that includes Chile, Argentina and anyplace else. Italy’s Piero Incisa della Rocchetta of Sassicaia fame started this project in 2004, and it’s now finding a groove. This wine is as elegant as Burgundy but as full of flavor as something from California. The color is rosy, the aromas beguiling, and the meeting of oak and fruit just perfect. Michael Schachner, Wine Enthusiast Magazine