While Hobbs winced at the plonk coming out of South America at the time, he saw potential for liquid gold in the region’s dry, sunny climate and rocky, well-draining soil. “I went down to Argentina thinking it would be a wasteland, and instead, I found great grapes that just needed to be farmed a different way,” he remembers. Hobbs and a couple of investment partners paid $1,200 per acre for their vineyard seven years ago—a fraction of the $100,000 to $200,000 per acre that was the going rate in the better appellations of Napa Valley. “Had I bought the property when I first arrived in Argentina, I could have purchased the land for about $400 per acre,” he says. Hobbs has no reason to complain, however. Vineyards in the area are now valued at $14,000 per acre.
 | | CLOS APALTA comes from the Chilean vineyard of Alexandra Marnier-Lapostolle, the Grand Marnier heiress who decided to launch a winery in South America rather than in California. |
New World’s Order
Those who planted vines in the last 15 years have seen stunning profits. Alexandra Marnier-Lapostolle, the heiress to the Grand Marnier marque, shunned California a decade ago when she decided to start a new winery, Casa Lapostolle, in the Apalta appellation of Colchagua in Chile. She was first attracted to the area on the western flank of the Andes because of its abundance of old-growth, phylloxera-free vines. (Phylloxera is a fungus that can be deadly to grape vines.) Her property supports a mix of these ancient, gnarled vines and a sizeable portion of new, disease-free ones, which she purchased locally. “Many of these vines were brought over from France in the early 1870s, shortly before France’s vines were devastated by phylloxera,” Marnier-Lapostolle says. “So Chile has this wonderful climate that grapes love, and vineyards that are virtually free of disease, so you can grow the vines organically.” Colchagua has become noted for its Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot grapes.
For her $12 million investment—a relatively small sum for a sizeable modern winery—Marnier-Lapostolle assembled a 100,000-case capacity facility with the assistance of local partners. Had she chosen to locate her winery in Napa Valley, she would have paid double that for a facility of comparable scope. Marnier-Lapostolle made another wise move when she hired Michel Rolland as a consultant. Rolland, a sought-after winemaker from the Pomerol region of Bordeaux, was the first internationally acclaimed vintner to give his nod to the region’s potential 15 years ago.
Rolland oversaw the purchase of expensive French oak barrels and top-flight winery equipment, and supervised a complete overhaul of the property’s magnificent 100-plus-year-old Merlot and Carmenere vines. Rolland is also advising Marnier-Lapostolle on the vineyard’s new winery building, which will feature cutting-edge, gravity-fed equipment on five underground levels. Today Casa Lapostolle exports 50 percent of its wines to the United States; the remainder it distributes to Europe and Asia. Marnier-Lapostolle’s nine different wines start at $10 per bottle; her premium reserve blend, Clos Apalta, sells for $70.
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