From the atlas
Bodegas Felix Lavaque
At A Glance
- Founded: 1870
- Location: Cafayate, Salta Province, northwestern Argentina
- Elevation: 1,800 metres (estate); 2,000 metres (Single Vineyard parcels)
- Grapes: Torrontés, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon
- Labels: Quara, Pecado
- Generation: Fifth
The Producer
Bodegas Felix Lavaque sits on Ruta Nacional 40 at kilometre 1046 in Cafayate, a small city in Argentina's northwestern Salta Province, at 1,800 metres above sea level. Jose Lavaque founded the estate in 1870, making it one of the oldest continuously operating wineries in the Calchaquí Valley. His grandson Gilberto built the formal cellar in 1930. Five generations on, Rodolfo Lavaque and his three children, Dolores, Julio, and Francisco, lead the winery today.
The estate is built around two wines that could not come from anywhere lower. Torrontés, the intensely aromatic white grape that defines Cafayate, is Lavaque's signature. The Quara label carries Malbec and other varietals to export markets, with the Single Vineyard Malbec drawn from parcels at 2,000 metres. Those two wines, a perfumed white and a firm, dark-fruited red, are the most direct introduction to what altitude does to Argentine wine.
Place
Cafayate sits at the southern end of the Calchaquí Valley, a high Andean corridor in Salta Province. The valley floor runs between 1,700 and 1,800 metres; the upper parcels used for the Single Vineyard programme reach 2,000 metres. At that elevation, the air is thin, UV radiation is intense, and the gap between daytime heat and nighttime cold is extreme. Grapes ripen slowly under warm afternoon sun and then cool sharply after dark, holding acidity and aromatic compounds that would dissipate at lower altitudes.
The altitude shapes both of Lavaque's key grapes differently. Torrontés keeps its characteristic floral lift, rose petal and peach perfume, without losing the firm acidity that stops the wine from feeling heavy. Malbec at 2,000 metres produces darker, more restrained fruit than the softer Mendoza style. The tannins are firmer, the colour deeper, and the finish drier. The label says Cafayate, Salta, and that address already tells a buyer something the grape alone cannot.
Soil And Site
The soils in the Cafayate Valley are poor: thin, largely infertile, and inhospitable enough that vines work hard for nutrition. Good drainage and low fertility push the vines deep and slow the canopy, concentrating fruit into smaller berries. High UV intensity at altitude builds phenolic ripeness in the skins, contributing to the firm tannin and deep colour in the Malbec. No specific soil classification (alluvial, sandy, clay) is confirmed for the Lavaque parcels, but the combination of altitude, poor ground, and intense diurnal swing is what the Cafayate growing environment is built on.
Story
Jose Lavaque planted vines in Cafayate in 1870 at a time when northwestern Argentina's wine trade was small and largely local. For sixty years the family grew grapes without a formal cellar. In 1930 Gilberto Lavaque, Jose's grandson, changed that: he built a bodega at 1,800 metres and established the infrastructure for ageing and bottling rather than selling grapes or bulk wine. That decision, made during the Depression, set the estate on a different course. It became a winery rather than a vineyard supplier.
Growth from that point was incremental but consistent. The estate expanded from its core owned parcels into contracted arrangements with third-party growers, eventually reaching access to more than 300 additional hectares alongside the 104 owned. Barrel capacity for Reserve ageing grew to exceed 5 million litres. The Quara label placed the winery's Malbec in Swedish retail alongside its Argentine Torrontés reputation. By the time the fifth generation arrived, the winery Gilberto formalised had become one of the larger and older operations in the Calchaquí Valley.
Vineyards And Cellar
Lavaque farms 104 hectares of owned vineyards around Cafayate and sources fruit from over 300 additional hectares grown by third-party growers in the valley. The owned parcels supply the estate's core wines; the third-party network extends the range and volume. No farming certification is confirmed for the estate.
For the Quara Single Vineyard Malbec, the winemaking is straightforward and deliberate. Fruit from the 2,000-metre parcels is fermented and macerated in stainless steel tanks, preserving the grape's fruit character without adding early oak weight. After fermentation the wine spends approximately one year in French oak barrels, with 25% of those barrels new. The new-to-neutral ratio means oak contributes vanilla and spice without overwhelming the cherry, violet, and berry profile that altitude Malbec produces. Barrel capacity across the cellar exceeds 5 million litres, built for Reserve ageing at scale.
Wines
The two anchors of the range are Torrontés and Malbec, each expressing a different face of Cafayate altitude.
The Torrontés is the winery's most argued wine. Torrontés Riojano, the best-regarded of Argentina's three Torrontés varieties and the grape most associated with Cafayate, produces its most intense aromatic expression at high altitude: rose petal, peach, and apricot flood the nose, while the firm mountain acidity stops the wine from reading as soft or cloying. Lavaque's Torrontés has been characterised as possessing extraordinary fineness and quality among Cafayate producers. No oak is involved; the wine's appeal is entirely about perfume and freshness.
The Quara label carries the Malbec programme. The Single Vineyard Malbec is 100% Malbec from the highest parcels at approximately 2,000 metres, and it is the most documented wine in the range. Below the Single Vineyard tier the Quara label also covers Cabernet Sauvignon and likely additional Malbec levels, alongside the Pecado label for other wines, though full sensory details for those tiers are not available. The range moves from the aromatic and perfumed, led by Torrontés, through to the firm, dark-fruited Malbec, two poles of what a high Andean valley produces.
In The Glass
The Quara Single Vineyard Malbec opens with berries, cherry, violet, and a light floral lift, with a low thread of smoke running underneath. The nose is balanced rather than showy. In the mouth the wine is dry, with a somewhat austere frame: lingonberry and red berry fruit, subtle vanilla from the French oak, coffee, and licorice, with the violet reappearing mid-palate. Firm tannin and marked acidity are the defining structural facts, a consequence of ripening at 2,000 metres where cool nights slow the final push and leave the wine tighter than Malbec from lower Argentine elevations. The finish is spicy and relatively long, with good concentration. This is cool-climate Argentine Malbec rather than the plush, generous style most associated with Mendoza: leaner, more angular, with more of the grape's natural edge intact.
The Torrontés, by contrast, is entirely aromatic in character: floral and stone-fruit on the nose, fresh and mouth-watering on the palate, kept from looseness by the mountain acidity.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Quara Single Vineyard Malbec. It comes from the 2,000-metre parcels above the valley floor, fermented in stainless steel to lock in fruit clarity, then aged approximately one year in French oak with a quarter of new barrels. What arrives in the glass is firm, dark-fruited, and dry: cherry and lingonberry, violet, a light smoke, then vanilla, coffee, and licorice on the palate, with a long spicy finish. The tannins are real and the acidity is marked. It tastes like wine made at altitude, where ripening is slow and the finished wine keeps an edge. One bottle distinguishes the Cafayate Malbec style from the Mendoza version more clearly than any description.
Anecdote
In 1930, sixty years after Jose Lavaque planted the first vines in Cafayate, his grandson Gilberto walked the estate and made a decision that had been deferred for two generations: he would build a proper cellar. The location was 1,800 metres above sea level, the Depression was underway, and Cafayate was not a destination wine region. Gilberto built it anyway. The cellar gave the family the infrastructure for ageing, bottling, and controlling what went into the bottle under the Lavaque name, rather than selling grapes or bulk wine to whoever would buy them. The bodega he constructed is still in use today, and the barrel halls that hold over 5 million litres of wine in Reserve ageing sit on the same ground where Gilberto decided, in 1930, that the family would be a winery.
Final Word
Bodegas Felix Lavaque is the oldest continuously operating winery in Cafayate and one of the clearest illustrations of what altitude does to Argentine wine. The Torrontés is vivid and aromatic, the Malbec firm and dry, and both reflect the specific conditions of a valley that sits where most winemakers would not plant. Five generations and 155 years later, the cellar Gilberto built in 1930 is still working.
Sources
- https://www.welcomeargentina.com/cafayate/lavaque-wineries-cafayate.html
- https://www.patagonia-argentina.com/en/salta-route-wine/
- https://www.afuegolento.com/articulo/cata-vinos-bodegas-felix-lavaque-argentina/3468/
- https://www.vinguiden.com/produkter/quara-single-vineyard-malbec/
- https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/655101/