Sophisticated Private Club or Safehaven For The Wealthy?

Sophisticated Private Club or Safehaven For The Wealthy?

Why did you invest in Argentina and in Cafayate?

I've been to over 175 countries, and I've lived in seven of them. Just like my forefathers, I'm looking for places that let me make the most of my personal freedom, and financial opportunity. Despite all of its well-known problems, Argentina is close to the top of my list. I like its culture, and its sophistication. I like its very low costs, and the exceptional value it offers. I like the fact that it's out of the path of many of the world's problems today. Cafayate? In the US I've usually lived in Aspen. To me Cafayate has the potential to be another Aspen. It may not have skiing, but it has the wine culture, a spectacular climate, and wide open spaces. It's going to develop like Aspen -- or Taos, or Sonoma. It has elements of all of them.

Why did so many foreign investors invest in La Estancia de Cafayate?

Estancia is designed to have absolutely everything that a sophisticated, worldly person could want. The designers didn't miss a trick. The vineyards not only offer a pleasing aesthetic, but they should pay for the costs of the golf course and other facilities. It makes it easy to be in the best health and condition of your life-- a great gym, a great spa, and everything from a lap pool, to a parcours, to tennis, to polo, to bocce ball, to scores of kilometers of biking, jogging, and riding trails. Plus a nice library, and the kind of neighbors you can have a pleasant intellectual conversation with. It's certainly what I've always wanted...

I have heard La Estancia de Cafayate described as a 'retreat for intellectuals', a sophisticated safehaven to ride out the current crisis. Is it that, or is it simply a nice place to live?

There is no conflict between those two things; and the phrase used was, 'a safehaven for the rational', but I didn't coin it. I will say what I have already said in print, and that is I do think we're approaching the end of the world as we know it… I'm not a fortune teller. But my gut feel is: yes, there’s a lot that’s likely to go wrong besides the central problem of the Business Cycle, a problem that is now evidenced in the collapsing housing sector and all the pain associated with that collapse. While I am intensely optimistic about the long-term future, in the short term I think there are lots of reasons to be afraid. Very afraid.

. . . and La Estancia de Cafayate is the place to be?

This crisis is extremely serious. It's more than just another cyclical downturn. I think Argentina will do better than most countries simply because it has no real estate debt. And its economy is closely linked to agriculture, which I think will be good. Buyers at estancia are aware of that. Also, most are quite sophisticated, so they believe in international diversification. and they tend to be quite friendly to gold, which does well in periods of crisis.