Great expectations and boundless opportunities

Chile is a wine-producing country with seemingly endless potential. New plantings in previously unexplored territories are bringing new styles to market. Following her recent visit, Felicity Murray brings a series of reports from the north to south of the country

Report 1: Elqui

Chile’s highest and most northern region at 30º latitude south is Elqui with its cool, clear starry nights and warm sunny days. The Elqui Valley has traditionally been dedicated to producing Moscatel grapes for the national spirit Pisco. However, the combination of rocky and alluvial soils, cool ocean breezes, warm days and cool nights, and a good water supply from the Puclaro reservoir, has begun to attract producersof fine wines to the area.

Viña De Martino

Elqui is home to one of Chile’s highest vineyards at 1,950 metres owned by De Martino, a family wine business founded 75 years ago in Maipo, that also has the only winery in the Choapa valley. It was this family that discovered less than 20 years ago that Carmenére (now Chile’s national grape variety) had in fact been misidentified as Merlot.

“In the river valley the alluvial soils are too fertile for fine wine vines,” explains winemaker Eduardo Jordan, “but higher up the steep 45ºmountain slopes it becomes more stony with granite soils and large round rocks.”
As the sun can be fierce in the middle of the day, the vines are planted in rows that follow the sun from east to west. “This minimizes exposure of the grapes to the sun and prevents them becoming sunburnt one side while remaining green the other, which happens if they are planted in rows north to south,” he says.  “We experimented in same vineyard and the result was a total contrast in quality.”

Also, to avoid the sunburn, some vines are trained differently onto a special ‘Parron Elquino’ that is angled away from the sun.
The harvested grapes are transported in the cool of the night to the winery in Santiago

All De Martino’s vineyards are farmed organically, but are not (from choice) certified, and Eduardo does not use root-stock as he believes this interferes with the wines flavour.

The result is white wines that are fresh and fruity with good minerality and reds that are deep in colour with full-on fruitiness but also distinctly spicy – especially the Syrah. Being launched February 2010, mainly in the US and UK markets, is Viña De Martino 2008 Syrah (with 15% Petit Verdot) from the second harvest from the highest Elqui vineyard and aptly named Alto los Toros (highest of bulls). RRP £8.49.

The winery's 2007 Single Vineyard Alto de Piedras won the Best Carmenère award in the International Wines & Spirits Competition (IWSC) this year.

Viña Falernia and Viña Mayu

Viña Falernia was founded in 12 years ago after Aldo Olivier Gramola, who had been growing grapes in the valley since 1975 mainly for Pisco, recognised the region’s potential for producing quality wines. Giorgio Flessati, an enologist from the Trentino region of northern Italy, joined Aldo in the pioneering venture, which was to become Chile’s most northerly wine estate - a long way from the country’s main wine-growing areas.

The Falernia brand is marketed under the Falernia and Mayu labels, and has been collecting numerous awards since its first Syrah vintage in 2002. Mayu is a separate company launched in 2005 by Aldo's son Mauro, which focuses on producing only premium wines from Elqui Valley. Both labels feature different Inca symbols – a popular design theme for Chilean wine labels. Mayu is the Inca name for the Milky Way constellation – and Elqui is an important centre for astronomical observatories.

The vineyards cover four sites in very different positions and climates - one just 18km from the ocean (good for Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, Syrah and Pinot Noir); another by the Puclaro artificial lake (suiting Syrah and Pedro Jimenez); and a third spectacularly high in a rocky mountain valley 1,700 - 2,070 metres above sea level (where Syrah and Pedro Jimenez and Pinot Noir are now planted). The fourth is the winery’s newest planting, called Pedregal, which is in the Vicuña area on the old bolder-strewn bed of the Elqui River.

On this barren 40ha site they are now growing Carmenére, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.

All the grapes are hand-picked because they "wanted to give work to 70 employees rather than use machines". The climate in Chile is perfect for late harvesting - "although birds can be a problem". About a third of Falernia's Carmenére and Syrah grapes are left to dry on the vines and harvested 7-9 weeks after normal picking (at which time the irrigation is stopped). The resuting wine is sweeter but has an amazingly low suger content of just 4.5.

“The soils in our vineyards are composed partly of rubble which has eroded from the Andes and deposited by glaciers and wind, and partly of alluvial sand and silt deposited by the river,” explains Giorgio. “The terrain at Vicuña was so rocky it took two years to machine two meters of topsoil for the planting.

“We are trying to do different things to other producers in Chile. We were first to plant in this valley and we are still the only ones with a winery here.”

Viña San Pedro

The San Pedro company has 80 hectares in Elqui mainly planted with Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah but is still experimenting with new plantings which include the first Pinot Noir and Riesling.

Viña San Pedro is one of Chile’s largest wine exporters with a presence in almost 80 markets and a wide range of brands: Cabo de Hornos, 1865 Single Vineyard, Castillo de Molina, 35°South, and GatoNegro.

The company is part of San Pedro Tarapacá (VSPT), along with the wineries of Tarapacá, Santa Helena, Misiones de Rengo, Altaïr, Viña Mar, Casa Rivas, Finca La Celia and Bodega Tamarí.

Today, VSPT is the second largest Chilean wine exporter and stands at the first place of the fine wine’s segment in the domestic market.

San Pedro’s main plantations, the winery and the centenary underground cellar are located in Molina, at the Curicó Valley, 200km south of Santiago. There, San Pedro owns one of the largest continuous areas of vineyards in South America, with 1,200 hectares. It also has over 1,500ha planted all along the Central Valley, and in Chile’s main viticulture valleys, such as Elqui, Limarí, Leyda, Colchagua, Maipo, Cachapoal, Casablanca and Bío-Bío - is always in search of “new and better origins and flavours” for its wines.

Viña San Pedro is another major winery taking an interest in the emerging cooler grape-growing zones in Chile – such as Elqui. Here, in an area just 22km from the ocean where the wind blows without fail between 11.00 and 16.00 every day, keeping the temperatures below 24º, San Pedro produces Syrah, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon wines - its first Sauvignon Blanc was launched under the Castillo de Molina label just three years ago.

Its latest project is a 40ha plot for Pinot Noir, but also a trial planting of just 6ha of Riesling, the first in the valley. The quality of these will not be known for four years, according to Marco Puyo, chief winemaker.

The group has also expanded into the Leyda Valley, another pioneering wine-zone in Chile.