Terroir · Many places, one philosophy

Many terroirs.
One refusal to settle.

Aranjuez has never worked in a single vineyard. Our wines are sourced from five established sites in the Tarija valleys — and from new frontiers across Bolivia that no one else has tried.

A philosophy

The first move was
simple. The next ones,
less so.

For most of Bolivia's wine history, a single valley defined the country: Tarija. Eighty-something percent of the national wine, virtually all the prestige, the only zone with the climate and altitude to produce serious wine at scale. Aranjuez was founded there, in 1976, and our first decades of work were about understanding what Tarija could do.

By 1999 we had a definitive answer: planted at 2,000 m, in clay-loam soils, Tannat could be remarkable. By 2010 we had pushed higher, to 2,095 m in Chaguaya — a place no one had previously considered for wine — and proved that Bolivia could produce a Geographical Indication of its own.

Today we work five distinct sites in the Tarija valleys, each with its own soil, its own microclimate, its own argument. And we are looking further still, at terroirs in regions of Bolivia where wine has never been seriously attempted.

The five sites of Tarija

Five places
between 1,900 and 2,095
meters.

Each one a different soil, a different exposure, a different question for the same family of varieties to answer. Together, two hundred hectares of high-altitude vineyard.

Established
1976
Soil
Sandy alluvial

The original. The neighborhood, the address, the brand. The winery sits here — Av. Ángel Baldivieso 1976.

Established
1980s
Soil
Clay-loam, laminar

An older estate in the valley of Santa Ana — the foundation of much of the varietal portfolio.

First Tannat
10·XI·1999
Soil
Clay-loam, laminar

Lot 40. The first Tannat plantation in Bolivia. Today a national landmark and the source of every bottle of Tannat Origen Single Vineyard.

Source for
Cabernet Franc
Soil
Silty-sandy loam

Home of the Capilla Santa María de las Viñas, the family chapel. The site that produces our most awarded Cabernet Franc.

Established
2010
First in Bolivia
Bonarda · Zinfandel · IG Chaguaya
Soil
Silty-sandy, stony
Latitude
21.7°S

Until 2010, Chaguaya was cattle country. Maize and grazing. We saw something else. Today this is the highest commercial vineyard in Bolivia and the source of Pionero Bonarda — Bolivia's first wine to carry a Geographical Indication — and of the Singani Insignia Moscatel grapes.

The valleys of Tarija

Three vineyards.
One valle.
Three altitudes.

From the Santa Ana valley at 1,950 metres to the high frontier of Chaguaya at 2,095 — three estates in the Tarija region, each at a different altitude, each with a different argument. Together, the source of every Aranjuez bottle.

Santa Ana la Nueva — Finca El Origen — is where Bolivia's first Tannat was planted in November 1999, in the 1.8 hectares that became Lot 40. Today every bottle of Tannat Origen Single Vineyard comes from those same vines.

Santa Ana la Vieja, slightly older and slightly lower, anchors the broader varietal portfolio. Cabernet Franc, Tannat, Bonarda — the productive heart of the brand.

Chaguaya, the highest commercial vineyard in Bolivia, planted only in 2010. The home of Pionero Bonarda — the country's first wine to carry a Geographical Indication — and of the Singani Insignia Moscatel.

21.3°S 21.5°S 21.7°S 21.9°S 22.1°S CORDILLERA ORIENTAL RÍO GUADALQUIVIR Tarija CIUDAD · 1.866 m Santa Ana la Nueva Finca El Origen · 2.000 m LOT 40 · FIRST TANNAT · 10·XI·1999 Santa Ana la Vieja 1.950 m · varietal portfolio Chaguaya 2.095 m · IG Chaguaya HIGHEST COMMERCIAL VINEYARD IN BOLIVIA N TARIJA — VALLES DE ARANJUEZ three vineyards · one region · three altitudes ≈ 20 km
The science

Why altitude
changes everything.

Tarija sits at 21.5°S — technically a tropical latitude, two degrees north of the Tropic of Capricorn. By every climatological logic, this should be a place that grows mangoes, not Cabernet Franc. Altitude is what changes the equation.

At 2,000 metres, the atmosphere thins and ultraviolet radiation increases by roughly 30%. Grape skins respond by thickening, by producing more anthocyanins and resveratrol. Color deepens. Tannin structure builds. The diurnal temperature swing — warm sunlit days followed by cool Andean nights — preserves natural acidity that lowland tropics quickly lose.

The result is wines that read on the palate as if they came from much further south or much further north — fresh, polyphenol-rich, structured — while in fact growing closer to the equator than almost any serious wine region in the world.