VIÑA TARAPACÁ
Celebrating Chile’s biodiversity
Chile is a piece of paradise with its incredibly diverse landscapes and wildlife. As part of their ongoing commitment to preserve and protect the natural environment, Viña Tarapacá has launched the Biodiversity range, a limited edition that cements its growing reputation as a guardian of Maipo’s native species.
Maipo: cradle of Chilean viticulture and biodiversity hotspot
The 148-year-old Tarapacá Estate is nestled in the heart of Chile’s Maipo valley, not only one of the first wine regions in the country, established in the 1540s, but also one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. The estate, which spreads over 2,000 hectares, is considered a ‘natural clos’ surrounded by a chain of mountains and rivers that act as natural walls to protect the native flora and fauna within.
As part of a seven-year Master Plan, Tarapacá’s team have been rebuilding biological corridors connecting the Cantillana Massif and the River Maipo. Over 100 hectares of native vegetation have been planted to date, including some 11,000 trees and 134 different plants, which provide a home to 58 animal species. The Andean fox, Chagual butterfly and Flor del Minero flower are among the endemic fauna and flora that thrive within the estate.
These native species, protected within the walls of the clos, are all celebrated in the colourful labels of the Biodiversity range. The range itself also reflects the diversity of grape varieties that are well adapted to the terroir of Tarapacá and Maipo. The Mediterranean climate, moderated by the nearby Andes mountains, is ideal for structured reds as well as refreshing whites. Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot all feature in the collection’s red blends, and Pinot Grigio is celebrated as the star white variety in the limited edition Biodiversity range.
Sustainability beyond the cellar
The focus has not been solely on restoring biodiversity; Tarapacá has also developed an overarching sustainability program to ensure green goals throughout the production process. As part of the sustainability Master Plan, wine production has been running entirely on renewable energy sources since 2021, with 100% of the energy required for the winery generated through rooftop solar panels.
Protecting water sources and recycling waste water has also been a key pillar, with savings of 24% water consumption achieved over the past six years. Sustainability spills into the eco-packaging too with a commitment to 0% PVC. It is this holistic 360-degree approach, looking at all the details from grape to glass, that is driving Viña Tarapacá’s vision for a biodiverse future.
Bastías, pictured, p56) and Manuel Moraga Gutiérrez (Cacique Maravilla).
Other important players were Thomas Parayre and Macarena del Río of Macatho. Inspired by Luyt, they brought an intense focus on organic and biodynamic vineyard practices to reveal the under-appreciated terroir potential of País.
‘I think País is one of the most resistant and strongest varieties that we have observed,’ says del Río. ‘It copes well with a lack of water [in spring and summer, this part of southern Chile often sees no significant rainfall for five months or more], extreme sun, fungal diseases such as powdery mildew, a lack of nutrients…
‘Because of these qualities we have plants that are more than 200 years old in the territory. But when you cultivate these plants and give them the necessary care, the grapes they give you are even more noble.’
STYLES OF PAIS
As a drinker trying to understand the many expressions of País, the appellations of Maule, Itata and Bío Bío will bring only limited help. Yes, Maule, with its warmer [more northerly] climate, produces País with a riper fruit profile; while from Bío Bío it is spicier and more herbal. But one must look to the individual winemakers and specific terroirs to identify discrete wine styles.
Chilean sommelier Héctor Riquelme (pictured), a tireless advocate of País and the winemaking heritage of Chile’s south, believes the most distinctive wines are made by the most traditional winemaking methods – in particular, fermentation in open lagares made from rauli wood. ‘For me, what happens in the open tank is magical. It gives an extra flavour to the wine, an extra typicity,’ says Riquelme.
‘You can then age in stainless steel tank, concrete or tinajas – or whatever you want to use – but when you get the fruit of these old vines, from the right place, and then ferment in open rauli lagares, this gives you electricity.’
Well-travelled Argentina-born winemaker Leo Erazo has done more than most to bring the nuances of south Chilean terroir to light (it would be remiss not to also mention Concepción-born geologist-turned-winemaker Pedro Parra, who is also making terroir-focused País in Itata and Bío Bío). A soil and geology obsessive with a decade of experience working in diverse regions and terroirs of the world, Erazo has been bottling País from Itata’s two principal types of mother rock – granitic and volcanic – since 2014.
He believes his low-intervention techniques – and use of concrete – help to retain the subtle terroir differences of his Granítico and Volcánico País. The elegant structure of his wines also
‘What happens in the open tank is magical. It gives the wine an extra flavour, an extra typicity’
--------------------------- Héctor Riquelme (above, judging for the Chile panel at the Decanter Worlds Wine Awards)
refutes the idea that all País is rustic in character. ‘Everybody talks about País having rough tannins,’ Erazo says, ‘but these rough tannins actually come from stressed vineyards. When País is in vineyards that are treated with herbicides and go into water stress by the end of the season, the natural response of the vine is to produce phenolic compounds, including tannins.’
For further proof that País can be elegant, taste the wines of Ignacio Pino Román. Based in Guarilihue, he is one of the most promising winemakers to emerge in southern Chile in recent years. His filigree, aromatic País is a world away from the rustic wines with which the region has long been associated. For Pino Román, the grape’s potential for finesse has always been there, it has simply been obscured from sight.
‘For a long time the wine industry in Chile made País invisible,’ he says. ‘The stubborn idea of making Bordeaux-type wines from “finer” French varieties hid its oenological potential. Today, Chile is recovering its winemaking identity, and this has attracted many talented professionals to
Maule, Itata and Bío Bío to lead its rebirth by producing high-quality wines.’
THE FUTURE IS FARMING
With their relative wealth of dry-farmed, centenarian vines – thanks to their location and favourable soil types, unaffected by the phylloxera infestations that impacted most of the world’s vineyards – Chile’s southern valleys are blessed with some of the most precious vine material in the world. But that has not been enough to save them from economic pressures.
Since the 1960s, even in these relatively undeveloped regions, glyphosate (weedkiller) has come to dominate vineyard farming. And though organic farming and viticulture persists, the economic reality is that Secano Interior [a dry inland sector within Maule and beyond] is plantation country. Huge areas of what was once rich native forest have been replaced by endless hectares of pine and eucalyptus. According to Macatho’s Macarena del Río, before a government decree in the 1970s that inaugurated an era of state subsidies for forestry companies, there were more than 100,000ha of País in Chile. Today, no more than 15,000ha remain.
One radical wine project provides an example of how to restore soil health and biodiversity to land continually under threat from big agribusiness. Mingaco, run by Pablo Pedreros and his wife Daniela de Pablo, is a regenerative farm with vineyards close to the Itata river. Organic for the best part of a decade (and latterly also no-till), it is a model of how putting nature first can yield the most extraordinary grapes and, by turn, the most extraordinary wines.
‘Five years ago, we were the black sheep of the region,’ says de Pablo. ‘Now, we are still perceived as radical, but people are moving towards this way of working. It’s slowly growing, but I wish more landowners or local people would be persuaded to work this way.’
Slow it may be, but growth is there. New vineyard-focused producers – both local and from overseas – are coming together to form a loose community in the region. Some work with their own vineyards, others buy in grapes; some work traditionally with open lagares, others using barrels or steel tanks. But they all share a common understanding that – though the textbook narrative still focuses on the valleys further north – the soul of Chilean wine is in the south. And there is one grape variety that defines that soul more than any other: País.
‘For a long time the wine industry in Chile made País invisible’
--------------------------- Ignacio Pino Román (see p55)