Bodega Domaine Bousquet

From Carcassonne to the desert of Argentina: the Bousquet story

The Bousquet family comes from Carcassonne in the south of France, where they have been making wine for generations. When Jean Bousquet visited the Gualtallary Valley in the Tupungato district of the Uco Valley in 1990, he saw an extraordinary terroir where others only perceived desert: sandy soils, dry air, cool nights, untouched land. In 1997, he bought the property, moved from France to Argentina, and began planting vines on virgin soil — without roads, without electricity, without a water supply. An early gamble that would prove to be groundbreaking.

The next step was taken by the second generation: daughter Anne Bousquet and her husband Labid Al Ameri took full responsibility for the winery in 2011. Anne had previously worked as an economist, Labid as a financial expert — together, they brought commercial thinking into a family business that had previously been run in an artisanal manner. An early breakthrough came in 2006, when Sweden ordered 250,000 liters of Domaine Bousquet for its national organic wine range, establishing the winery's international presence.

Biodynamic, regenerative, socially anchored: the path beyond organic

For the Bousquets, organic farming was never a certification strategy from the start, but a matter of course. The sandy, phylloxera-resistant soils of Gualtallary allowed for organic work from the beginning — without pesticides, without synthetic fertilizers, only with natural compost. Today, the 240-hectare estate in Tupungato is biodynamically certified according to Demeter and was the first winery outside the USA to be awarded the Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) seal.

For Anne and Labid, sustainability does not end at the vineyard boundary. 70 percent of the approximately 180 employees come from the local community of Tupungato; the "Enlazados" program, in cooperation with the municipal administration, offers vocational training for the long-term unemployed. The vines are irrigated exclusively via a drip system using meltwater from the Andes — a precise necessity given the barely 20 centimeters of annual rainfall, which simultaneously ensures the low pH value of the berries and thus their natural acidity structure.

High-altitude fruit with French precision: what defines the wines

The vineyards are located at an altitude of 1,200 meters, where the day-night temperature difference is up to 15 degrees Celsius. This thermal effect slows down ripening, preserves acidity, and builds aroma complexity. The soils — sandy, calcareous, stony in places — force the vines to grow deep and keep yields naturally low. The harvest is carried out exclusively by hand. Rodrigo Serrano Alou, cellar master since 2019, previously worked at Chandon Argentina and in Napa Valley, among others; he translates the terroir into a clear, fruit-driven style with good structure.

In our range, you will find Malbec in three expressions — from the accessible base version to the Grande Réserve — as well as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, each as a standard and reserve bottling. Common to all wines: dark, concentrated fruit, lively acidity, and the clear fingerprint of a high-altitude terroir that manages without chemical intervention.