Cinti Valley

The Cinti valley runs through a red canyon between Camargo and Villa Abecia, and wine has been made here since the seventeenth century, longer than in Tarija, on haciendas established to supply the mining city of Potosí. The distinctive practice is vid de altura en molle: vines planted at the foot of molle or chañar trees and allowed to climb them, so the canopy is a tree rather than a trellis, some of the plants over a century old. It is labour-intensive and gradually being replaced by wire training, which makes the surviving stands worth seeing. Old adobe bodegas with clay fermentation jars survive along the valley, several making singani and wine on a small scale. The canyon itself, with its red walls, is the setting.

What you actually see

• Vines in trees - grapes trained up molle and chañar trunks.
• Colonial bodegas - adobe wineries with clay jars and old presses.
• The red canyon - the valley walls between Camargo and Villa Abecia.
• Hacienda buildings - the estates that supplied Potosí with wine.

When to go

February to April for the harvest, when bodegas are working. The valley is warm and dry most of the year. Roads are poorest in the wet months from December to March.

Honest expectations

There is no organised wine route: visits are arranged by asking at bodegas, and Spanish is necessary. The tree-trained vines are declining and some valleys have none left. Accommodation is basic and limited to Camargo and Villa Abecia. Roads are rough.

Nearby

Tarija lies south; Sucre is north.