"Como no entendemos NADA! Lo queremos saber TODO!" Altos las Hormigas is one of the most exciting winegrowing projects in South America. It is run by an international dream team: Italians Alberto Antonini, Antonio Morescalchi, and Attilio Pagli; Chileans Pedro Parra and Leonardo Erazo. They function like a classic jazz quintet, each player contributing to a sum that is far greater than its parts, but there are jazz quintets and there are jazz quintets, and this one has two superstars.

The key collaboration is between Alberto Antonini, the philosophical Italian, and Pedro Parra, the mercurial Chilean. They are different in many ways, but they have much in common. "I am a peasant", Alberto loves to intone; when reminded that he is a peasant with a PhD, he responds "well, when you are a peasant, it's good to have a PhD", which is hard to argue with. It is no surprise that Pedro also has a PhD; however he is somewhat less inclined to go on about being a peasant than Alberto.

The quote above ("We understand NOTHING! We want to know EVERYTHING!"), a classic bit of 'Parra-ese', says it all about Pedro and Alberto. They share a relentless curiosity that has driven them to the most extreme regions in the world - high in the Andes, the Atlantic Coast of Uruguay, Armenia, the fringes of Okanagan Valley - to explore new terroirs.

Their approach is very simple, stemming from the idea that "the main creative force behind the wine is its place of origin, and not the winemaker." They employ a 3-step method to define and express terroir: first, study the soil types; second, produce a highly detailed soil map; third, farm by soil type.

The late great guru of biodynamics Alan York was a major influence, and played a vital role in establishing the 'Altos las Hormigas Terroir Project', dedicated to using precision agriculture to reveal the distinctions between malbecs from Altamira, Vista Flores, and Gualtallary.