Baptiste Cuvelier of Cuvelier los Andes

At Vino LeFebvre we are especially proud to have the wines of Cuvelier los Andes, Mendoza, Argentina, in our portfolio. I just spent the entire week traveling with Baptiste Cuvelier here in Indianapolis and Southern Indiana (Bloomington).
The Cuvelier Family owns several wineries: Chateau Leoville-Poyferre (2nd Growth Bordeaux), Chateau Le Croq and of course Bodega Cuvelier los Andes.

It was very interesting to listen to Baptiste explaining the involvement of his family in the wine business. Michel Rolland has been a family friend and wine consultant for the Cuvelier Family for over 25 years and when he set out to start the Clos des Siete Project he invited the Cuvelier family to join the project. In 1998, Bertrand Cuvlier (Baptist' uncle) made the happy choice of personally accompanying Michele Rolland in his great Argentine project, which was to become the "Clos de Los Siete" group. Three years later, Jean Guy Cuvelier (Baptiste's father) decided to join his cousin Bertrand in the joint aim of building a Bodega and producing fine wines worthy of the family tradition.
Since then, the Bodega has been built and each year the vines of Cuvelier Los Andes have contributed 50% of their production to "Clos de Los Siete", the wine signed by Michel Rolland. The success of this wine worldwide is due to the exceptional value for the money it offers.

The 2003 yield has also allowed the production of the first edition of "Cuvelier los Andes-Colleccion". Then the 2004 harvest saw the arrival of the first edition of "Cuvelier los Andes-Grand Vin" (which Baptiste describes the as the cousin of Leoville-Poyferre).
Everyone kept asking for a pure Malbec and so in 2005 they finally produced a 100% Malbec, the" Cuvelier los Andes-Grand Malbec" - the only wine in the Cuvelier family that is NOT blended.

Beside being in charge of the export the the Americas, Baptiste is also a wine maker and recently started his own wine production in Languedoc - a blend of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan (partly made with carbonic fermentation). Baptiste is also involved with 4 of his friends in a project in Chile where they make wines from organically grown grapes and also is a "Fair Trade" project. All these wines should be at Vino LeFebvre within a year.

Coleccion 2006 received from the Wine Advocat 90 points, the Grand Vin 2006 received 92 points and the Grand Malbec 2006 received a whopping 95 points. Needles to say, we only received a small allocation of the Grand Malbec. My advice: Buy it when you see it!

All of these wines are of astonishing quality and concentration. Colleccion saw a 11 month elvage and half of it in barrels, Grand Vin 14 month and all in Barrel and Grand Malbec 22 month in New French Oak.

The wines are available at Payless Liquors behind Bob Evans on 96th St, west of I-69 - ask Tom Fields - he still has some 2005 vintage left (also some signed Bottles by Baptiste) and also at Crown Liquors at Meridian/Carmel Drive, Fisher store and up in 146th and IN 39.
Mr. Doug Pendleton of the Grapevine Cottage in Zionsville also has plenty of Cuvelier wines available in his store - he only carries rated wines.Also look for these wine at Cork and Cracker stores (both) and also at Vine and Table in Carmel.

I had the opportunity the see the winery in Argentina earlier this year during a visit to the Clos de Los Siete Compound. They have one company that manages the vineyards and the irrigation. However, when harvest time arrives, each individual winery then become master of their own arts.To me it is amazing what kind of wines the are producing from vines that are only up to 7 years old. I truly believe that the are amazing wines coming with future vintages.

Ciao.....chin, chin.....