Cafayate

Cafayate sits in the Calchaquí Valleys at 1,683 metres, in a high desert ringed by red sandstone cliffs where the wine is white and the light is the colour of old Malbec. The Torrontés grape reaches its peak expression here — a floral, dry white unique to this altitude and this valley — and the small bodegas producing it are scattered on the dirt roads outside town, each one accessible by bicycle. The Quebrada de las Conchas between Cafayate and Salta is 47 kilometres of red rock formations with names like El Anfiteatro, La Garganta del Diablo, and Los Castillos that successive generations of travellers have found inadequate.

Cafayate is the wine capital of the Calchaquí Valleys and Argentina's highest major wine-producing region, with vineyards at elevations between 1,600 and 3,000 metres. The intense ultraviolet radiation at this altitude produces grapes with exceptionally thick skins and concentrated flavour, resulting in Torrontés whites and Malbec reds with a character distinct from the Mendoza equivalents. The town itself, with its colonial-era central plaza and regional bodega museum, was founded in 1840 and retains the unhurried character of a market town — a quality that makes it a natural stopping point on the road between Salta and the quebrada country. The surrounding Quebrada de las Conchas, carved by the Río de las Conchas over millions of years, exposes geological formations dating to the Cretaceous period.