Celebrating Two Decades of Clos de los Siete’s Trailblazing C7 Bordeaux Blend in Mendoza
This year, Clos de los Siete will celebrate 20 years of its ground-breaking C7 cuvée, a Bordeaux-inspired blend created by French winemaker Michel Rolland. This prestige cuvée represents not only Rolland’s personal relationship with Mendoza, but also a decades-long collaboration amongst seven local winemaking families. All share the common goals of creating high-quality wines and elevating the Mendoza growing region worldwide, with sustainability and innovation always at the forefront of each vintage.
Clos de los Siete’s Beginnings
Rolland’s limitless curiosity and passion for high-altitude growing sites first led him to Mendoza in 1998. Originally from Bordeaux, Rolland was instantly captivated by the breathtaking landscape of Argentina’s mountainous terrain. From his earliest visits, Rolland realized its potential as a world-class viticultural area. He began returning to Mendoza on a regular basis, determined to find the ideal location to plant his own vines. Ten years later, he found his answer in a special plot of land in the Uco Valley, located at the foot of the Andes Mountain range.
Eager to collaborate with like-minded individuals, Rolland partnered with six other French families to purchase Clos de los Siete, which translates to the “vineyard of seven.” This joint purchase allowed Rolland to work the entire plot as a single-vineyard site, which today spans an impressive total of 2,100 acres.
C7: Where Old World Meets New World
Malbec has always been the key player in Clos de los Siete’s C7 cuvée, as the vineyard’s dry, well-draining conditions allow the varietal to shine. In any given vintage, a combination of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot are also included, with Malbec remaining the star of the assemblage. But what sets C7 apart from other Bordeaux-inspired blends around the world is the mastery brought by Rolland himself, who has worked as a consulting winemaker for hundreds of estates across 13 different countries around the globe.
Rolland’s is especially experienced in the art of blending, which is beautifully showcased in Clos de los Siete’s C7 cuvée. Each vintage, Rolland tastes multiple hundreds of wines created from top parcels at each of Clos de los Siete’s contributing wineries, choosing only the best expressions for the final cuvée. His keen sense of what works and what doesn’t comes from more than 50 years of experience, and flawlessly illustrates Rolland’s ethos of matching Old World winemaking with New World fruit.
About the Vineyard
Situated 60 miles south of Mendoza, in the heart of Argentina’s prestigious Uco Valley sub-region, the Clos de los Siete vineyard sits at soaring altitudes of up to 3,600 feet. Here, well-draining soils and an optimal exposure ensure that Malbec, along with other Bordeaux varietals, reach optimal ripeness without ever sacrificing acidity. The climate of the Clos de los Siete vineyard is relatively dry, resulting in very low disease pressure and a regular cadence of ripe, healthy harvests year in and year out.
Today, four of the seven original families provide grapes for Clos de los Siete’s C7 cuvée, including Monteviejo, Cuvelier Los Andes, DiamAndes and Bodega Rolland.
Commitment to Sustainability
Sustainability has been a core value at Clos de los Siete since its earliest days. All vineyards at the winery are certified sustainable under the official Bodegas de Argentina Sustainability Protocol. Drip irrigation is used with care, and grapes are fed into the winery post-harvest by gravity. From vineyard management to cellar work, Clos de los Siete ensures that only the best, fair trade practices are implemented.
Altogether, this innovative and forward-thinking approach to winemaking, coupled with a reverence for uncompromising technique and quality, explains how Clos de los Siete has for decades bridged the gap between New and Old World winemaking. Now, with its trailblazing C7 cuvée hitting its 20-year anniversary with the release of the 2021 vintage, Clos de los Siete continues to make the case for Mendoza.
