Aurelio Montes says multiple generations bring excellence to the family business.
In Houston from Chile, son says multiple generations bring excellence
Aurelio Montes, the son, answers to “Junior.” Aurelio Montes, the father — and also oftdescribed as the “father of Chilean wine” — is “Senior,” of course. However, he is, in fact, really the “Junior” Montes, whereas the former is Aurelio III. The reason for the confusion is that the original Aurelio in the family was never involved in the wine business, which “Senior” founded from scratch in the mid-1980s with a dream, three similarly determined partners and very little scratch.
“Maybe like $30,000,” Junior says. “They had nothing.”
Today, the Montes family has a lot. Viña Montes produces enough juice to have a footprint in 110 countries but, more important, has been a leader is making the kind of serious, high-end wine that gave the winery major credibility internationally. Their flagship, Purple Angel, almost single-handedly transformed carmenère, the “lost” grape of Bordeaux, into a respected varietal. Despite relatively large production, which means you can usually find bottles on shelves locally for about $70, it’s about the closest thing Chile has to a cult wine.
On a recent visit to Houston with his wife, Ximena Vial, the younger Montes hosted an intimate wine dinner at the Argentine restaurant Tango & Malbec because the winery has also had a strong presence across the Andes in Argentina since 2002, when it launched the Kaiken label. Kaiken, or Caiquen, are the wild geese capable of flying high enough to traverse the towering mountains separating the countries.
Nearly 20 Montes wines are available in Houston-area Total Wine, Spec’s and H-E-B stores, ranging from less than $10 to almost $300. The Kaikens are less well represented, and that’s one of the reasons he made his second-ever trip to Houston.
Winemakers are, as a rule, passionate storytellers. Montes, 43, is exceptional, offering both provocative and nuanced takes on the difficulties he experienced melding his new ideas and concepts with his father’s timetested ones, the critical importance of sustainable farming practices — sustainable, not organic, which he considers a counter-productive approach — and the need to think proactively to anticipate looming challenges before they become crises.
For example, no matter how well malbec thrives in Mendoza and other Argentine wine regions, he thinks it’s critical for Kaiken to expand its portfolio because malbec might one day fall from favor, as happened to merlot in California. People are fickle. He’s particularly enthused by cabernet franc’s upside potential, although production remains tiny as the search for bigger blocks of the right terroir continues.
Montes is something of an outlier in that he doesn’t fret much about climate change because he says he hasn’t yet seen any of what was predicted “when I was a boy reading National Geographic,” such as rising seas levels along the long Chilean coast. (Of course, in Argentina, he’s got altitude on his side). But he does worry about dramatic “weather change,” which he’s experiencing firsthand in both countries. Rainstorms are more far more violent than when he was a child, and droughts are more prolonged.
The worst summer fire season in Chile’s history devastated more than 600 square miles in January and February. Montes’ estate-grown fruit wasn’t affected, but sourced grapes from another vineyard proved unusable because of smoke damage.
For the longest time, Montes resisted working with his famous father and, when he decided to give it a go, he agreed to jump through all the same educational and vetting hoops a nonfamily member would have been asked to do. And, at first, Montes père and Montes fils did butt heads. But the contentiousness was fleeting, and today the men are close, equal partners pulling in the same direction.
With Senior approaching his 70th birthday, Junior has moved back to Santiago from Mendoza and taken over as the director of winemaking for both the Chilean and Argentine operations. They’re thriving.
“In terms of quality, we are No. 1 (in Chile) by far,” Montes contends, adding: “It’s the only winery that has two generations. It’s the only winery that the owner is the winemaker. Our philosophy goes through our wine, not our pocket. That’s very important when you look at the long term. We care about profit because, without it, you can’t survive, but we must worry about the environment, too, for the future of our business and the health of our family and our workers. We work with people. We must never forget about that.
“People think the best way is always organic. That’s not correct. Controlling with organic products means you must go through the vineyards 10 times more than if you use pesticides. You kill animals with the tractors. You produce (exhaust fumes). You compact the soil. You scare the birds and the foxes away. And, even if you are organic, you are allowed to do many bad things as long as you don’t use pesticides. We have found a way to eliminate 70 percent of our pesticides by using eco-friendly products that don’t require always being in the vineyard. If you go to our vineyards, you will be alone.”
Except, he promises, “for the birds and the foxes.”
Montes lives large, reflecting his personality. Although he has given up boxing, he loves skydiving, extreme mountain biking, skiing and riding his motorcycle, admittedly faster than he should sometimes. Having horrifically lost his first wife in the tsunami that ravaged Thailand while they were on their honeymoon, he doesn’t need to be reminded to make every day, every hour count.
Nor does his wife, a commercial engineer who is also pursuing a master’s degree. Vial’s first husband was killed in an automobile accident. When they met, no two people ever needed each other more.
Lovely wines, lovely story. And, by the way, one of their three kids is Aurelio III. Of course, he’s really Aurelio IV.