What if I told you there’s a winery in Peru that was the highest in the world?
The Apu Winery was the world’s highest vineyard in the world planted at a staggering 3300m above sea level. It was started by Fernando, from Lima, and Meg from Washington with the first vines being planted in 2011. When they met, Meg was (and she still is) exporting Pisco to the US and Fernando was studying to be a sommelier, whilst earning a living as an economist.
In 2018, a new vineyard opened in the Cai Na Xiang province in Tibet and beat the record held by the Apu Winery for seven years, but it is still in second place but vineyards in Mendoza Argentina, and Tibet being planted higher and higher the competition is on.
Why open the Apu Winery? What changed their world?
was one simple question from Fernando to his tutor on the sommelier course,
“Why does no one make a great wine in Peru?”
The answer was simple- the vineyards in Peru are on the coast, where there is not enough temperature variation from day to night to make a great wine, which needs the heat to produce sugars, and the cold to maintain acids. So Fernando spent the next few years studying topographical maps and driving around the country to find the perfect microclimate.
He found it in sunny Curahuasi- 125km and 3 hours and 15 minutes from Cusco. Situated only 25 km from Choquequirao and the tropical cloud forest means that even at 3,300 m, there is never a frost at night. Combine this with calcareous soil and it soon became clear, they had the opportunity to push the boundaries of winemaking in Peru.
When they first started, they pruned and harvested according to the seasonal schedule Peru’s coastal winemakers use. But it did not produce good results. So they switched to the schedule of the Northern Hemisphere, pruning in February and harvesting in September and October, with had much better results. Meg and Fernando live with their two small children, 15 minutes up a dirt track from the small town of Curahuasi. Living in such a remote part of the Andes is not without its challenges.
Socially you are very cut off, and educationally you are limited. The children go to the village school run by German evangelicals- so while the education is good, it also comes with a very particular religious stance. The German influence extends to the bakeries with Curahuasi having some of the best cakes outside of Cusco. We even found some great homemade gnocchi in a local restaurant that would have cost double in Cusco.
Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sangiovese are currently producing wine, with Tannat grapes soon to be planted. The winery is off the grid with water coming from the glaciers above and being gravity fed to the vines. Solar panels power everything else. Their aim is to produce 2, 000 liters per hectare, across 3 hectares, they are going for quality over quantity.
But the results are worth the effort- much of the wine was bought outright by top Lima restaurants such as Central. As their consultant said to Fernando, ‘It’s not you that is going to see the results of this project. You are planting it for your children and their children to enjoy.’
Visiting the Vineyard
If you want to visit, they currently have two guest rooms. It can be combined with our 1 day Apurimac rafting trip, or with a visit to see the condors flying in the Apurimac Canyon at Chonta, making for a very different two days/one-night excursion from Cusco.
If you prefer a day trip, no problem, that is what I did. I left Cusco at 8 am, enjoyed a spectacular drive through awe-inspiring scenery in the Chinchero plains and the Apurimac Canyon, arriving at this Peruvian winery around 11.15 am for a tour of the vineyard and some wine tasting, followed by a nice lunch with Meg and Fernando. We washed it down with some homemade grappa, that they make with our friends at El Albergue in Ollantaytambo, who normally distill Caña Alta. Then I was home by 6 pm.
This was a lovely way to see a different side of Peru and meet some great people. If you are big into your wine, I think you would really enjoy a tour around the highest winery in Peru.
