a different side to chile
Last week, I hosted Chilean winemaker Roberto Henriquez in my back yard here in California. As I tasted the wines, we spoke for an hour about the identity of Chile's wines and his work in the vineyard, both of which he spoke passionately about. He's based in Bío Bío, one of the more southerly of Chile's regions, and also makes wines from neighboring Itata. Although both Roberto and the wines are most definitely Chilean, they represent a different side to Chile.
Winemaking in Chile goes back to the mid-1500s, after the country was colonised by the Spanish. Religious missionaries brought cuttings to grow grapes for Mass, spreading vines across Central and South America. The grape variety mostly planted—probably originally taken from the Canary Islands—gained different names in the various countries: Mission in Mexico and California; Criolla Chica in Argentina; and País in Chile.
In none of those countries did it garner a high reputation, used almost solely for religious purposes. But in the last few years, the varieties have gained more attention from winemakers passionate about the heritage of the regions in which they make wine.
Vines have long been planted in Bío Bío, but it's far removed from Central Valley where wine production developed in the mid-nineteenth century. Central Valley regions are located near the capital city of Santiago, which gave wineries a commercial advantage. Regions further from the capital stayed on the fringes of the developing wine industry, but they now have three distinct advantages: a very different climate to produce different styles of wine, old vines, and impassioned winemakers.
The climate of Chile's Central Valley is warm Mediterranean, partially protected from the Pacific by coastal mountains: ideal conditions for grape growing. In contrast, Bío Bío is not protected from the Pacific, and so receives more wind and rain. That had put off many producers from investing in the region, but now the old vines and cooler conditions give winemakers an opportunity to present a different vision of Chile.
Roberto works with old vines up to 100 years old from Bío Bío and neighboring Itata. Sémillon and Chasselas are the base of his white wines, País and Cinsault for the reds. The wines are eclectic and esoteric, and manage to taste like a combination of Burgundy, Bordeaux, Spain, and Slovenia while remaining uniquely Chilean. They're light but intense; contemporary but historic; a taste of Chile's past but also of its future.
blackpoolmatt's wine club has had the "Rivera Norte" in previous shipments; now I have "Tierra de Pumas" País. It comes from a 250-year-old vineyard near the Bío Bío river on granitic soils. The vineyards are ungrafted and receive no irrigation: this is an authentic expression of Chile's long winemaking history. Having tasted through almost all of Roberto's wines, this is the one I chose for the club because it evoked Chile so expressively, which is what wine should do.
The wine tells us so much about Chile. As we began tasting, I asked Roberto for a music recommendation we could listen to. Five minutes later, he finally ran out of bands to recommend. That's Roberto: passionate about everything he talks about.
(we finally settled on Corazones to listen to.)