about Finca Bella Vista
Finca Bella Vista is the perfect name for Don Arcenio Castillo's high mountainside farm, overlooking the beautiful valley of Hoja Blanca. The mountain forests stretch to the south, west, and northwest, while the valleys of southeast Chiapas are visible to the northwest on a clear day.
Arcenio is the older brother of Wilmar Castillo, another producer partner at the neighboring Finca Vista Al Bosque. The brothers grew up in coffee, working on other producers' farms just out of primary school. They picked cherry with their father Felino Castillo where they grew up, in the mountains of La Cipresada, La Libertad, a couple hours' drive by truck from Hoja Blanca. Eventually the family moved to Hoja Blanca to cultivate coffee on a small plot of land of their own. As both Wilmar and Arcenio came of age, they worked the family land and bought small neighboring plots themselves.
In 2008, Don Arcenio purchased the first plot of land he would call Bella Vista, with a 3 year financing agreement. Over the next few years, he would buy adjoined lots to increase production, in addition to pruning old trees and strategically planting Caturra and Bourbon starts from his family nursery. The farm benefits from fresh mountain ground springs, providing clean water for drinking and irrigation year round, and ample water for processing during the harvest season. The northwest facing slopes of Bella Vista are shaded by Chalum and alder trees, with occasional old growth pines and other native trees, which attract migratory birds. Altitudes range from 1750 to 1850 MASL.
Bella Vista has received increasing attention over the past few years as they've won awards in regional and national competitions. Don Arcenio is incredibly sharp and exacting, and his meticulous alternative processes of his Maragogype and Gesha varieties display incredible clarity and indulgent sugars. This year, we picked up both Don Arcenio's main lot Bella Vista Caturra Bourbon, and his Bella Vista Camas Africanas lot separation, a delightful double fermented lot dried carefully on covered raised beds.
