Family
HISTORY
Bodega Isasmendi was founded in 2005 by Ricardo Isasmendi and his wife Sylvie Bonnal when attracted by the Calchaquí Valley, they decided to acquire a 3-hectare estate with an old winery-house in Cachi.
However, the legend was born much earlier. There are actually three stories of migrants that gave the starting point for the estate to exist as it is today. Three characters from different origins that found a meeting point in the Calchaquí Valley highlands and become tangible today thanks to Ricardo, Sylvie and the generations to come.
NICOLAS SEVERO DE ISASI ISASMENDI Y ECHALAR
Pioneer in the Argentine wine scene
The Isasmendi family has a wine-growing history that dates back to 1831, when the last royal governor of Salta, Don Nicolás Severo de Isasi Isasmendi y Echalar, founded Colomé, the oldest operating winery in Argentina. In 1854, his daughter Ascensión Isasmendi introduced the first pre-phylloxera Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec vines from France.
Colomé belonged to the family for 170 years, until the Hess group acquired it in 2001.
Motivated by this legacy, Ricardo and Sylvie founded Bodega Isasmendi in 2005, a family business in which grandparents, parents and children participate today.
Origin: Basque Country, Spain
In Argentina since the first half of the 18th century.
JEAN PAUL BONNAL
“Savoir-faire” … 4th generation of vinters in his family
Jean-Paul Bonnal is Sylvie’s father and the author of the wines. He is passionate about the art of viticulture and winemaking, from which he had contact from a very young age in his beloved French terroir.
He is the cornerstone of Bodega Isasmendi. His love, his dedication, his effort, his perseverance, even his ability to communicate with the grapes, invest the procedure of special magic that spreads to the new generations.
Origin: Pied Noir (French-born in Algeria)
In Argentina since 1965
DR HOYGAARD
Cachi and the doctor’s vineyards
Before being acquired by the Isasmendi family, the estate belonged to Arne Hoygaard, an internationally renowned Norwegian medical scientist and very much loved and respected by the people of Cachi.
The family assumes the responsibility of adding value to the place full of significant history, whose patio, the heart of the house-winery, has been, and will continue to be, the space for meetings, around a torrontés under the shadow of the pepper tree.
Origin: Norwegian
In Argentina since 1945