François and his brother Jacques started making wine in Argentina as far back as 1988. After much searching they found what they were looking for in the Alta Uco Valley an area of majestic natural beauty in the foothills of the Andes. Although nothing more than a semi-desert at the time they were the very first to recognise the potential of this area for vinegrowing ; the quality of the terroir, the virgin lands set in altitude, the continental climate and the presence of a pure source of underground water coming from melted snow from the Andes Mountains. The very complex terroir, a combination of sand, granite schist, alluvial deposits and large rounded pudding stones are suitably poor and well draining, which convinced them to embarked on the new venture purchasing 200 hectares of the virgin land in 1996, an area named Chacayes.