When Miguel Angel Reigosa bought 50% of the Café de los Incas in 1993, he told his partner Jorge that his dream was to have the “largest display of whisky in Argentina”.
He made it.
Miguel Angel and all the whisky on display at his Villa Urquiza Whisky bar ‘Café de los Incas’. (Photo: Brian Funk)
In 2010, her majesty Queen Elizabeth II herself invited him to spend a few days in London for her birthday: by then, he had the largest private collection of whiskies in the world, and his bar, Café de los Incas, had become a mecca for whisky lovers throughout the southern hemisphere.
Nothing except whisky is displayed behind the bar. “It is the only alcohol I can drink,” Miguel admits candidly.
With its dark woods, low lights, scruffy carpet and a suited-up waiter pouring scotch ‘by the eye’, Café de los Incas is indeed the closest thing to a Caledonian pub you could ever set foot in here in Buenos Aires. The architecture itself is quintessentially British, with flashbacks to an old Victorian tavern.
Of the 260 varieties stocked in the bar, some hang on the walls resting in custom made illuminated lockers. These precious locked cases open only for the 3,200 members of the Argentine Malt Whisky Association (WMA) who can request imported rarities whilst enjoying a mouth-watering 40% discount.
Some members drink it straight, some on the rocks, some with William Wallace – a thermal mineral water specifically created and mineralized by the WMA to accompany whisky and now exported all over the world.
Tastings, appreciation courses and communal dinners are also on offer, where the most expensive variety of J&B could cost up to $1,000 per sip – but you can get away with paying $45 per glass for an excellent blend of Irish whisky.
The finest Argentine blend, the Criadores Breeders Choice, obviously features on the a la carte menu in this whisky academy, which also houses a replica of the first bottle of Jack Daniels; a Cuty Sark produced to celebrate the jubilee of Queen Victoria; a famous Grouse limited edition; a bottle of Old St. Andrews shaped like a golf ball; a 30-year old Ballantine or a 12-year old Macallan (but, yeah, you can just ask for a simple, unpretentious coffee)
A former importer of clocks and perfumes, Angel learned how to drink whisky in the United States during trips abroad. “My father bought me my first bottle. ‘Son,’ he told me, ‘the day you will start drinking, you’ve got to learn how to drink good stuff.’ Now the only thing I can drink is whisky,” he says.
Precious Glenfarclas whisky (Photo: Brian Funk)
Angel founded the WMA in 1999 when, thanks to the convertibility regime, he could import bottles of whisky people had never seen before.
“I will always be thankful to this era,” he once wrote. “Otherwise it would have been impossible to have the quantity of bottles I now have in my private collection.”
Mundo Whisky, the television show he hosts on canal Metro every Sunday at midnight, is just a part of this ‘cultural’ revolution.
“We’re granted funds by the municipality to open a whisky museum because they consider us a cultural entity,” he confessed, rattling off a list of bar and pubs franchised to the WMA in Argentina.
Last December, the association organized the 8th National Festival of Whisky, and the perspectives for the future appear encouraging. “It is not only a Buenos Aires thing. We are ‘teaching whisky’ in Córdoba, El Calafate, Venado Tuerto (Santa Fe), Rosario, La Plata and Salta.”
“I wish Argentina had better whisky culture,” he gets off his chest. “Our problem is that we can’t make long-term plans, every ten years we have a crisis. It’s a shame as we have the finest ingredients in this country.”
In 2001, when the country collapsed, few Argentines were introduced to the whisky cult. Now, if the economy crushes again, Argentines can at least find consolation at Café de los Incas. After all, as the tradition goes, what was whisky created for, if not for being both medicine and antidote to sadness?
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