Chile north to south. Part III

A major series based on my 10-day tour of Chile in December 2009. This is Part III, visiting the wineries of the Central Valleys in Maipo, Cachapoal and Colchagua, and then travelling much further south to Bío Bío, currently Chile's most southerly wine producing valley.

Maipo: suburban dreams

The burgeoning city of Santiago has plenty of diversions to offer the visitor. Those looking for the quickest access to wineries and vineyards will find the Maipo Valley has - handily - come to meet them. Thanks to the city's expansion, vineyards begin in the southern suburbs, with big names like Concha y Toro and Santa Rita within easy striking distance of the centre. But as is the case elsewhere, here in Chile's oldest vineyard area things are getting a tad more complicated. (Right: manicured gardens at Concha y Toro's tourist friendly winery).

Today we have not only Maipo to understand, but 'Alto Maipo' and 'Coastal Maipo' too. Echoing the story throughout Chile over recent years, Maipo's vineyards have been creeping east and further up into the foothills of the Andes, and west towards the Pacific, all in search of cooler climates and more diverse soils. Understandably, the Maipo producers are keen to stress the very real differences between each zone, and whilst not yet officially recognised, the coast, centre and mountain regions are widely accepted as virtual appellations.

Best known historically as a red wine valley, Cabernet Sauvignon certainly remains a strong suit, though those vineyards in the Alto Maipo, ranging in altitude from 400 to 800 meters, are adding new dimensions. The sun rises on the Argentinean side of the Andes, so mornings are extremely cool and the falling cold air of evening drops overall temperatures significantly. Coastal, or 'Pacific Maipo' is really an extension of the same valley system as San Antonio and Leyda, and these two newer sub-divisions are also producing much fresher whites, notably Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, than the region could offer previously. Soils vary hugely from east to west too, with the rocky, volcanic soils of the mountains, alluvial soils of the central zone and a maritime, sandy influence towards the coast.

Whilst investing in vineyards, land and the purchase of fruit from new valleys like Leyda and Limari, the old guard establishment of Maipo is not resting on its laurels, but is consciously looking to make Maipo a more diverse and higher quality valley than ever before.

Maipo producer profiles and tasting notes

Colchagua: Chile's grands crus?

In many ways Colchagua is a product of the gradual re-definition of Chile's vineyard zones. Formerly an effectively anonymous sub-zone of the Rapel Valley, Colchagua has developed as its own DO and with a distinct identity in recent years, thanks largely to the concentration of top red wines emanating from its vineyards. Indeed, some sub-zones of Colchagua will now be familiar on labels, like Chimbarongo, Santa Cruz and, especially, Apalta.

Nowhere in Chile is the re-thinking of Chile's vineyard sites more obvious than in Colchagua. Following the course of the Tinguiririca River from the Andes towards the Pacific, the valley was almost exclusively planted on the flat, with the slopes and rocky hillsides of the mountains ignored. Even as recently as my first visit to Colchagua in 2002, I distinctly recall that the winemakers concentrated on their wineries and wines, but rarely the vineyards. Today in the top estates, it really is all change.

I scrambled my way up and down some very steep slopes with Aurelio Montes of Viña Montes as he showed me his recently-planted Syrah and Carignan vineyards, whilst at Luis Felipe Edwards the views from their highest vineyards, planted in 2005 at over 900 metres, are breathtaking (below, click the photo for a bigger version).

Apalta, a bowl-shaped hillside within the Santa Cruz area of Colchagua, has risen to prominence largely thanks to Lapostolle's top wine, Clos Apalta, a blend based on Carmenère and Merlot, and more recently Montes 'Folly', made from Syrah grown on the steepest part of their Finca de Apalta vineyard, on a 45º slope. Anyone proposing in the early 1990s that such vineyards would become the source of some of Chile's most iconic wines would have been regarded as crazy. Indeed, Montes' Folly is so named because the idea of Syrah being planted on Colchagua's steepest slopes was met with a mixture of disbelief and puzzlement.

Today, the valley's reputation still rest mostly on established Bordeaux red varieties, though plantings of Carignan, Mourvèdre and Grenache are increasing.