Our Story
The idea of Condor Valley Estate & Winery was born in 2005, when American traveler and entrepreneur Hank Bannister purchased the 70,000-acre piece of land nestled in beautiful and wild Northwest Argentina.
Hank first visited Argentina more than 25 years ago, adventuring through the Andes with his friend and guide, Martín Pekarek. When Martin took Hank to his native Salta wine region, Hank fell in love with the area’s unique landscape, wildlife and distinctive wine culture. However, he also saw a region at risk, as the Northwest region of Argentina remained largely unprotected. As an admirer of the conservation work that Douglas Tompkins was doing in Patagonia, Hank was inspired to take on his own project.
In 2005, Hank and his wife Kyoko purchased the majority of land that in 1900 made up the historic cattle ranch Estancia La Bodega, located two hours from the colonial city of Salta. On one of the ensuing trips, Martin and Hank witnessed 26 circling condors above their heads and realized that the gorge that marks the entrance to the property and Juramento River valley was an active flyway for Andean condors. This led to their little 300-bottle wine production to be named Condor Valley, and this name was later applied to the property after land purchase.
“My dreams were a pale imitation of reality.”
Our growing team behind the Condor Valley project discovered an incredible variety of wildlife, including five species of wild cats, the endangered deer Taruka, and over 200 species of birds that call Condor Valley home. To help preserve this biodiversity, Condor Valley has partnered with the nonprofit Rewild.org (Global Wildlife Conservation) and brought scientists and volunteers to study the region’s flora and fauna.
We also established the first vineyard in the area, headed by Martin’s son and wine maker Bruno Pekarek. In 2020, right at the outbreak of Covid-19, we built a completely off-the-grid, solar-powered winery between our two vineyard plots – El Cordon and Quebracho Doble.
Lastly, we’ve begun to renovate our guest lodges and have opened Condor Valley Estate & Winery to adventurous travelers eager to experience a unique side of Argentina. Our guests come here for a memorable Wine Tasting with mouthwatering regional empanadas and estate-grown wines.
After a 15+ years of learning how to best conserve and regenerate the land, Condor Valley is set to become Northwest Argentina’s next undiscovered destination for sustainable travel and adventure tourism.
