Pancho Lavaque

Coming Up

Formal study at UC Davis School gave Pancho Lavaque a technical base before the work narrowed into the conditions of Cafayate. The useful part of that training is not abstraction but calibration: it set a frame for the pace, decisions, and standards that winemaking demands. In the Cafayate Valley, those lessons meet a local vocabulary shaped by altitude, sunlight, and family practice. Today, Pancho is winemaker of Bodega Lavaque.

Where They Are Now

Today, Lavaque works as winemaker at Finca Quara. He also works as winemaker at Bodega Lavaque in the Cafayate Valley. Those two roles sit inside the same landscape and the same set of responsibilities: reading the valley, managing the cellar, and keeping the work aligned with what Cafayate asks of the grape. The continuity is the point here, with family and place carrying the load across both labels.

Signature

Vallisto, LAVAQUE, and Félix Blend are the named wines associated with Pancho's work. As a group, they show a winemaker operating through consistency rather than excess, with family knowledge and the repeated conditions of the Cafayate Valley shaping the result. The signatures are less about flourish than about maintaining a line of practice across different bottles.

In Their Words “I am the fifth generation of winemakers in my family.”