Boutinot partners with Uco Valley winery for new joint venture

By Hamish Graham

Published: 13 February, 2025

Greater Manchester importer Boutinot is partnering with Uco Valley estate and winery Bodega Urqo, in a wine-making joint venture called Azul y Blanco (AyB).

A winemaking team comprised of Guillaume Letang of Boutinot and Leo Pisano of Bodega Urqo, with guidance and support from well-known Argentinian winemaker Daniel Pi, will develop new wines for Azul y Blanco.

Commercial manager for the new Azul y Blanco brand, Robin Naylor, is hopeful the new venture can deliver a unique expression of Argentinian wine.

“Azul y Blanco will be launching new wines at Wine Paris and Prowein 2025 with disruptive labels that express Bodega Urqo’s people, place and finesse, reinventing the marketing of Malbec,” he commented.

The wines produced by Azul y Blanco will be made with grapes from both the Uco Valley and elsewhere in Argentina. Wines produced solely with Uco Valley grapes will be labelled "Valle de Uco”.

Although the majority of the Azul y Blanco wines will be made at Bodega Urqo, collaborations beyond Mendoza will bring other Argentinian winemakers into the fold.

Head of product at Boutinot, Nick Butler, believes the new collaboration will be a worthwhile one for producer and importer both.

Butler said: “The Azul y Blanco partnership enables access to long-term stable supply of high-quality grapes and wine from the Uco valley and beyond. It’s also exciting to have so much organic wine available to work with, especially on some forthcoming sustainable product developments.”

The sustainable credentials have already been on show at Bodega Urqo of recent, with their vineyards now certified sustainable by the Bodegas de Argentina protocol. The protocol was created by the Bodegas de Argentina trade group to acredit wineries' committment to sustainability across their business, be it sustainable viticulture, materials management during bottling or water conservation.

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