Food & Wine USA - (10)October 2020

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56 OCTOBER 2020

OLD VINES & NEW WINES THE RISE

OF CHILE’S FAR SOUTH

CHILE’S REPUTATION has long rested on Bordeaux varieties—

dense Cabernets, grassy Sauvignon Blancs. The new Chile

represents a turn away from that, and in some ways a turn to

its roots. As Julio Bouchon, a top producer in southern Chile

says, “In a way, people have forgotten Chile’s actual wine past.”

The País variety, as he points out, “comes from Spain, to the

Canary Islands, to Mexico with Spanish missionaries, then up

and down to California and Chile in the 1600s.”

The rediscovered southern regions of Chilean wine are where

you’ll find old-vine País, along with Carignan and Cinsaut: Maule

Valley, Itata Valley, Bío Bío, even Patagonia. (Maule is technically

the southern end of the Central Valley but for all intents and

purposes belongs in this group.) This is the Chile of small, inde-

pendent producers; family-owned vineyards full of gnarled old

vines; and a growing interest in low-intervention and other less

technologically driven styles of winemaking. —RAY ISLE

2018 PEDRO PARRA Y

FAMILIA IMAGINADOR

CINSAULT ($20)

Pedro Parra, an acclaimed terroir

consultant, founded his winery

in 2013 to focus on historic vine-

yards throughout the Itata Valley.

This old-vine Cinsaut smells of

dry spices and flowers, and it

bursts with strawberry fruit.

2014 ERASMO RESERVA DE

CALIBORO ($20)

Erasmo’s organically farmed

estate is owned by Count Fran-

cesco Marone Cinzano of the

acclaimed Col d’Orcia winery in

Brunello di Montalcino. But this

Cabernet blend speaks clearly of

Maule with its dark cherry and

earthy forest-floor flavors.

2018 DE MARTINO

GALLARDIA CINSAULT ($20)

Family-owned De Martino was

founded in 1934 in the Maipo

Valley, but it owns a number

of ancient vineyards in the far

southern Itata Valley as well,

among them the plot of Cinsaut

vines that produce this light-

bodied, graceful, peppery red.

2019 VIÑA MAITIA AUPA

PIPEÑO RED ($12)

Old-school pipeño wines were

made by farmers to drink after

the harvest. This lightly

tobacco-y, fruity País-plus-

Carignan version comes from

Maule Valley–based husband-

and-wife winemakers David

Marcel and Loreta Garau.