Winemaker

Álvaro Lorenzo

Discipline: Winemaker
Based in: Maldonado, Uruguay
Venue: Alto de la Ballena · Winery

i. Biography

His work is built around one long project: finding land, shaping an estate, and keeping its direction steady over time. Since 1998, Álvaro Lorenzo has been the founder and owner of Alto de la Ballena, and the measure of the work is in that continuity—less a break with the land than a sustained effort to define it.

The Path

The founding of Alto de la Ballena rests on a choice that is common in conviction and uncommon in practice: to search for land rather than inherit a finished estate. Álvaro Lorenzo and his team made that decision in 1998, then carried it forward as the basis for the project. In wine, where patience and timing matter as much as intent, that kind of beginning sets the terms for everything that follows.

The Work Today

The daily work at Alto de la Ballena is stewardship measured across seasons. It requires attention to what changes and what holds, with each year adding another layer to the estate’s identity. Under Álvaro Lorenzo’s leadership, the project still turns on the original act of looking for land, imagining what it could become, and working with persistence to give it form.

Career - Founder and owner — Alto de la Ballena, Punta del Este, Uruguay (1998–present)

Signature

Álvaro's signature wines include MERLOT 2007 and TANNAT VIOGNIER 2008. These bottles mark the work in concrete terms: named wines, dated, and tied to the discipline of getting a vintage to speak clearly. Within Alto de la Ballena, they stand as examples of the estate’s defined focus.

In Their Words Taken together, the remarks place the project in context without dressing it up. One looks at the early years with distance; the other identifies the starting point, when the work moved from intention to action and the search for land became the estate’s first real gesture.

Acclaim

Álvaro Lorenzo has received SILVER Medal for MERLOT 2007 (2010).

FAQ How did Álvaro Lorenzo get started? He got started in 1998 by deciding to look for land, the step that began his founding role. What is Álvaro Lorenzo best known for today? He is best known today as the founder and owner of the Maldonado wine project he has led since 1998.