Primo Vodka-Distillery-Destilería

The distillery is located on two and a half acres of land surrounded by one of the oldest vineyards in Mendoza . Originally an olive factory, the building has now been converted to a distillery.

Renovations began in February 2006. Equipment made to PRIMO 's specifications, by Christian Karl in Germany and Velo in Italy , arrived four months later.

After Mendoza 's 2006 grape harvest, test distillations of PRIMO vodka Malbec commenced in June 2006. After all Argentine government approvals were granted in late 2006, PRIMO vodka Malbec debut on the Argentine market - within one year of its undertaking. By January 2008, PRIMO was approved for sales in the USA and Australia . After recently garnering international awards and attention, PRIMO is working on expanded distribution as importer contracts solidify.

Hungarian-born master distiller Emil de Balthazar lived in the USA for 20 years prior to moving to Argentina . He apprenticed as a distiller in Hungary and studied distillation techniques in the USA . Today, he crafts his distinctive vodkas by hand in small batches in an 18-plate copper pot still. He strives to protect the integrity of an individual grape variety: “We achieve the points of clarity to be vodka, but at the same time, we want to keep a ‘message' of the grapes, so we only distill three times.”

Mendoza possesses optimal characteristics for a wine region: the growing season is long, the nights are cool, the days are filled with bright sunshine and the water runs crystal clear from the Andes Mountains to the Mendoza vineyards. These aspects combine to consistently produce superb high alcohol content grapes with which to begin base product distillations.

There are only three distillations: the first to extract the alcohol from the fermented wine, and the second and third to refine the alcohol further. After its final distillation, PRIMO vodka, with a 95% alcohol content, is clean and at the same time carries the message from its exceptional base ingredient: such as Malbec, or Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon.

Grain and potato based vodkas have to be distilled many times because they start with countless impurities which require numerous cleanings. Wine based vodka, on the other hand, yields a clear and clean distillate after only a few distillations while at the same time retaining the distinctive characteristic of its base ingredient. Every bottle of PRIMO is hand-crafted, from beginning to end.