Apu High Altitude Wine- From Vine to Wine

Take a photo journey with us to learn about how we make our premium Peruvian wine.

Step 1: Harvest and Selection of Grapes

Our grapes are hand-harvested and selected, to ensure to only the best fruit goes into our wine.

Step 2: Destemming

After selecting the best fruit, a portion of the stems are removed. This is necessary so the stalky, bitter flavors of the stems don't overpower the wine. The manual destemmer also lightly crushes the grapes.

About 15% of our stems are thrown back into the juice during fermentation of our Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. We feel it adds some sophisticated aromas, flavors and tannins to our wine.

We then do a prefermentation maceration to develop more aromas. After that, we add yeasts to activate fermentation.

Step 3: Fermentation

Red grapes ferment with their skins to give the wine more intensity and tannins. White grapes are allowed a light maceration with the skins to add richness to the wine, but then they are removed after 1 day. Because of the lower oxygen levels at our high-altitude, it takes a little longer to ferment here at Apu Winery.

Step 4: Pressing

It takes an average of 7-10 days to complete fermentation. For red wine, we press the grapes to remove the skins and seeds, collecting the wine in a well down below for aging.

White grapes will have been pressed at this point in the process.

Step 5: Aging

The Sauvignon blanc wine is transferred to stainless steel tanks for aging. The red wines age in both stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels.

Step 6: Bottling and Labeling

Sauvignon blanc ages for a few months, while our Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese age longer. When this process is complete, the flavors and aromas of the wines have melded and reached their peak quality.

The wine is filtered, bottled and labeled and then sent to Cusco, where it is distributed locally or send to Lima via plane.

Fercal Rootstock in Apu's Vineyards

Grape rootstocks provide resistance to diseases and pests, promote a more extensive root system and improve tolerance of calcareous soils (Perry and Sabbatini). Because of their indispensable influence on the future success of vines, we carefully select rootstocks that will best adapt to our vineyards.

The great majority of the vines we imported from France were grafted with the Fercal rootstock. Genetic analysis showed this variety is a cross between Berlandieri Colombard #1 B and 31 Richter, as seen below:

In addition to being one of the most adequate for limestone soils, the Fercal rootstock is also resistant to chlorosis, downy mildew and anthracnosis. It moderately protects against gallicolae phylloxera and has a very high tolerance to radicicolae phylloxera.

We don't know of any availability of the Fercal rootstock in South America; the majority of grapevines with this graft are located in France. Planted over an estimated surface area of 30,000 hectares, vines with this graft are found in Champagne, Aquitaine, Charentes, Alsace, Midi-Pyrénées, Val de Loire, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Languedoc-Roussillon and Rhône-Alpes (Barbe).

We believe that with the Fercal variety, our new grapevines will thrive in our limestone soils. Selecting the best rootstocks, tending to each and every vine, hand picking the best grapes- all are part of the meticulous viticultural process at our winery.

Sources:

Julien, Barbe. “Catalogue of Vines Grown in France.” Plant Grape, plantgrape.plantnet-project.org/en/porte-greffe/Fercal.

Perry, Ron, and Paolo Sabbatini. “Grape Rootstocks for Michigan.” MSU Extension, www.canr.msu.edu/grapes/viticulture/grape-rootstocks-for-michigan.

High-Altitude Tannat

Tannat has historically been associated with southwestern France and Uruguay, but we hope that in 5 years, people will associate this variety with high-altitude Peruvian wine. We recently planted Tannat vines from France in our vineyards at 2850 meters (9,350 ft) above sea level.

There isn’t a precedent for growing this variety at such high altitudes. In Madiran, France, the average elevation is 128 m (420 ft). In Uruguay, most Tannat vines are grown at low altitudes on the coast in the departments of Colonia, Maldonado, Carmelo, Canelones, Rivera and Montevideo.

Tannat wine is typically acidic and astringent. Due to the cool nights at our high altitudes, we expect that acidity to be even more notable. Following techniques currently used in Tannat production, we may blend ours or use micro-oxigenation to soften the tannins . We will also make a Tannat rosé, limiting the contact with the skins during maceration in order to keep the wines from getting too tannic.

A consultant from France recommended we plant Tannat here in the Andes because the vines are resistant to mold and fungus, as issue we face during rainy season. The plants also do well in areas with extreme diurnal temperature variations, which is one of the defining characteristics of our terroir. Overall, Tannat is an adaptable plant that can grow in a variety of climate conditions. We expect to produce a bold and delicious Tannat wine in 3 years. Please stay tuned as our vines mature!

Sources:

Slinkard, Stacy. “Why You Want To Drink More Tannat Wine.” Wine Folly, 2 Apr. 2018, winefolly.com/review/why-you-want-to-be-drinking-more-tannat-wine/.

“Tannat.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannat.