Local Wine from La Antigua
Locally produced wine from La Antigua Guatemala has not been available since the colonial times… until now. Chateau DeFay, a new local vintner has brought the art of wine making in Guatemala back to life.
First Vintage
by Ira Lewis
A rewarding excursion to Guatemala’s first winery to produce wine from locally-grown grapes since colonial times
Hidden behind a coffee finca on the lower slopes of volcano El Agua is the first winery to produce wine from Guatemalan-grown grapes since colonial times: Chateau DeFay. Jacques and Angie DeFay recently presented their first vintage after years of finding the right grapes, some false starts, lots of very hard work and years of nurturing the vines. The vintage is 2007, but the wines have only just become available to the public.
After a four-kilomoter drive down a dirt road from Santa María de Jesús toward Palín, it comes as quite a surprise to find this turreted chateau, which would be perfectly at home in Bordeaux or Italy. A gate on the left with the discreet initials “CDF” marks the entrance.
The three wines of the first vintage, even coming from young vines, show promise. Could Guatemala be another improbable area that will become a wine-producing country because the right soil and weather conditions exist? It all starts with one winery.
For example, North Carolina was not a wine-producing state 20 years ago. Then tobacco demand fell, a few farms planted grapes and some started to make wine. As the potential became apparent, experienced vintners came into the area and now wine cognoscenti are starting to refer to the North Carolina Piedmont region as the Sonoma Valley of the East Coast.
Read the entire article by clicking here.
Popularity: 67% [?]
Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed or email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing on ArteAntigua.com
Thanks for visiting!