By Richard Thomas

With whiskey-making spreading around the globe, one of the few places the practice is springing up that should come as no surprise is Argentina. The country is renowned as a land of thick-cut, charcoal-grilled steaks, and whiskey is the best after-steak drink there is. With that in mind, it was only a matter of time before someone brought whiskey distillation to the land of the gaucho, and one of the new companies doing that is La Alazana.

Established in 2011 by Nestor Serenelli and Pablo Tognetti, La Alazana is located in Bariloche, the Patagonian town in the Andean foothills famed as an outdoor adventure travel destination. La Alazana was first whiskey distillery licensed in Argentina, and anticipates having a single malt ready for release in Autumn 2014 (or Spring 2014, if you live south of the equator).

According to Nestor Serenelli, La Alazana “working hard to produce a “Scotch style” single malt whisky, rigorously respecting their traditional elaboration process of double distillation in copper pot stills.” Their process starts with local grains and water drawn from springs on Piltriquitrón Mountain before going on to double distillation in a 550-liter copper pot still. For maturation of its initial release, La Alazana is relying on a mix of second-fill bourbon barrels that have already done a stint at aging Scottish single malt, and first-fill Pedro Ximenez sherry casks made from American oak, the latter coming from Hagmann vineyard in Argentina.

Even though La Alazana’s first expression isn’t even on the market yet, the company already has future releases in the works. In 2013, they imported some peated malt from Europe with an eye on creating a peaty version of their whiskey, and have also begun experimenting with maturation in barrels used to age Argentina’s esteemed Malbec wine.

Although La Alazana won’t have a whiskey out for sale for several months, whiskey-lovers headed to Argentina should keep them in mind. Despite not having a product yet, the distillery is open to visitors, making it a nice stop of anyone who wants to take a look at a malt whiskey distillery done Patagonian-style.