País and Weiss be with you all. Salud and Prost!

País and Weiss be with you all. Salud and Prost!

Outstanding Wines from Chile and Austria.

Leonardo Erazo “A Los Viñateros Bravos” Volcánico País 2018 Itata (Chile), 12.5%

€24.95 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

Some terrific wines, many made from the País grape, are coming out of the Itata area in Chile. And this is one of them.

Colour is quite a light ruby. Aromas of wild strawberries and, I’m told, of the local vegetation. Palate is fresh and light, vibrant, delicate red fruit flavours, touch of spice, distinctive and refreshing, smooth all the way to the finish. The granitic soils have a lot to say and tell here and, perhaps, that is why, or at least one reason, this wine reminds me of a good Beaujolais. A quiet friendly one and Very Highly Recommended. 

“A Los Viñateros Bravos” means to the brave vignerons. This is Erazo’s tribute to those the have kept these incredible red vines alive, 100% farmed by hand. Here in the interesting granitic and volcanic soils of Itata, old vines, ungratified, unirrigated, natural low yields, and natural winemaking allow us to show the impact on the wine were the roots are feeding the mother rock.

The first País (also known, particularly in California, as the Mission grape) was brought by the conquistadors in the 1550s and, for centuries, the new locals used it to make wines for themselves. But bit by bit, the big companies began to use the big-name grapes and the ancient imports lost ground. Leonardo Erazo was one who wanted to reverse this trend. He travelled the world for ten years to study wine and then came back and founded A Los Viñateros Bravos.

In Itata, Leonardo has worked with the scattered local farmers’ old vines—many well over 100 years, still growing as dry farmed, untrained small bushes—to enhance their traditional natural practices to align with biodynamic guidelines. His mission, throughout this journey, has been to bring a sense of place into the bottle. Looks like he (and others, such as Pedro Parra) is succeeding.

Beck Weissburgunder Austria 2019, 12.5%

€21.85 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

This Austrian Pinot Blanc has a beautiful bright yellow gold colour. Gorgeous inviting aromas too of citrus and white fruits. Strikingly full-bodied and a delicious satisfying harmony between the complex fruit and a refreshing acidity with a hint of spice in there as well. Another outstanding wine from Judith Beck. Very Highly Recommended.

The winery says Weissburgunder is a globally underestimated grape. It is perfectly adapted to the climate and soils around Lake Neusiedl and finds its ideal conditions here. The fruit is picked by hand, and is matured, on the entire lees, for 6 months in used oak casks, so as not to add an oaky flavour and it is fragrant and refreshing.

Since 2007, Judith Beck has produced wines in accordance with biodynamic principles. They say: the focus is on the vine growing. Biodynamics is an art of healing which takes advantage of the holistic curativeness of nature. It aims at strengthening the natural resistance of the plant.The aim is to produce authentic wines with an individual aroma   while at the same time maintaining healthy soil and vines.

Two Well Recommended Red Wines. An Old Roots Cinsault from Chile and a GSM from Minervois.

Three Well Recommended Wines. Eight Grape Varieties 

Montes “Outer Limits” Cinsault 2017 DO Valle del Itata Chile, 13.5%, 

€24.99 Baggot Street Wines, Blackrock Cellar, The Corkscrew, Wineonline.ie, Ely Wine Store (Maynooth).

This juicy vibrant Cinsault has a bright mid-ruby colour. Ripe red and darker berries in the aromas, just a hint of the time in oak, floral notes too. Bright fruit again prominent but acidity too in a harmonious palate, a decent wash of spice, and quite a pleasant mouthfeel too. Plus a persistent finish. This blend - there is 15% Mourvedre there also - is Very Highly Recommended.

Food pairings suggested include: Rabbit stew, slow-cooked legumes such as lentils, and very juicy cuts of red meat and game are ideal with this great wine. Serve at 12º to 14ºC (53º-57ºF).

This southern French variety has been planted in southern Chile for well over 100 years, but has only recently been making wines as good as this juicy, peppery and wonderfully vibrant red, quite a few of the better examples coming from Itata.

This ‘Old Roots’ Cinsault is made from dry-farmed, head-trained vines grown in the Itata Valley, where the first grape varieties were planted in Chile 500 years ago.

Aurelio Montes has been regularly lauded as one of the pioneers of top class Chilean wine. Wines of South America: “It's hard to express in a paragraph the extent of Aurelio’s impact on modern Chilean wine. Rightly recognised as Chile’s patriarch of quality wine-making…”

He is always pushing the boundaries as he said in a recent Zoom masterclass. “If you don’t go to the limit, you won’t know what you can achieve.” Aurelio says he is always seeking quality through innovation, never afraid to employ new technology. See more of this maestro’s masterclass here. 

Domaine Luc Lapeyre “L’Amourier" Minervois (AOC) 2018, 13%, €16.15 Wines Direct

Dark and deeply so. Aromas too speak of dark fruits, rich purple plums and intense red cherries, a hint or two of the wild garrigue, a touch of liquorice. And the fruit-driven palate is no less intense, though the flavours now reflect a softer alliance of berries, soft tannins too, all wrapped in a fresh and attractive juiciness. Open my collar, the better to enjoy this complex harmony. I could be here for a while with my new and Very Highly Recommended ami. 

“ Lapeyre has an unmistakable gift for creating wines that are intriguing, charming, elegant and refreshing.” I cannot argue with that in the face of this excellent blend of Grenache, Mourvedre and Syrah. Wines Direct say it pairs well with Pork and Poultry, Hearty Roots, Game plus Beef and Lamb. Reckon it could also handle spicy meals.

Pedro Parra and Pais the links in this very highly recommended Chilean double

Pedro Parra and Pais the links in this very highly recommended Chilean double

Pedro Parra “Vinista” Itata Chile 2018, 13%, €23.99 

Blackrock Cellar, Redmonds, The Corkscrew and www.wineolnline.ie

This wine from southern Chile is a light to mid ruby. Wild red berries feature in the aromas, with herb notes in the background. Refreshing bright juicy fruit on the palate, a hint of spice too. String quartet rather than full orchestra, it is immediately harmonious right through to the engaging finalé. 

A young beauty from ancient Pais vines. Don’t say no just because you’re not familiar with the Pais grape (also known as Mission). I’m loving this one. Very Highly Recommended. I’m also putting his Cinsault on my list. And I read somewhere that Gamay may also be considered by Pedro.

Pedro Parra (see also Clos de Fous below) is a renowned soil and vineyard mapping expert with a Masters and PhD in Precision Agriculture and Terroir from the Institut Agronomique National in Paris. There are photos of him all over the internet, with 99% of them showing him climbing out of a 6’ deep hole, holes he excavates for soil analysis purposes. No wonder he is also known as Dr Terroir!

He has spent decades working internationally but bit by bit realised he really wanted his own vineyard and winery and so he set up in Itata near the ocean, 500 kms south of Santiago, the capital of Chile. And this gem, the fruit sourced from 120 year old vines planted at 300 m above sea level, is one of the results. The wine has spent one year in untoasted foudre and then spent 8 months in bottle before release. Time well spent!

* Pais is a red grape variety of great historical importance. According to Wine-Searcher.com it was the first Vitis Vinifera grape variety to be exported from the old world to the new world in the 16th century.

Clos des Fous “Pour Ma Geule” Itata Chile 2016, 14%, €19.99

Blackrock Cellar, Grapevine, Green Man Wines, Martins , The Corkscrew and www.wineolnline.ie

Mid Ruby is the colour of this Itata blend (of País, Carignan and mostly Cinsault). It boasts a nose full of red berries, some spice too. There is quite an arresting reveal on the palate, berries and cherries, generous and silky, and there’s a lively acidity in the mix, a harmonious wine, with fine tannins too in the long finish. Very Highly Recommended

The name is a cheeky French expression, to describe the stash of wine the producer is keeping to drink himself (for my gob and my gob only!).  Quite a few French words on the  label including assemblage (blend).

Clos des Fous is about four friends, four crazy guys that have chosen to ignore the experts about where to plant vineyards and to trust their own instincts. But don’t worry, the four are experts themselves, experts with a mission. The four are winemaker Pedro Parra (see his wine above), François Massoc (extensive experience in Burgundy), winemaker Paco Leyton (Altos las Hormigas, Puculan) and businessman Albert Cussen (strengths in admin and finance). 

They are about growing wines over “the Chilean extreme, fresh and unpredictable places, looking for natural balance”. “This is a unique and groundbreaking project based on a delicate and novel terroir selection. Following the Burgundy philosophy, our focus is to achieve wines with minimal intervention, letting the terroir express itself.” 

Clos des Fous (the madmen’s vineyard) is highly praised in Wines of South America: “Their approach produces wines that distinctively express their terroir, made with organic fruit and using techniques that are so minimalist that the wines are vinified without ‘safety nets such as fining or filtering'.”

Looks like they have a good thing going here at Clos Des Fous. Already they have built up quite a portfolio - Pinot Noir is their signature wine -  and you can expect more as they build on Pais, Cinsault, and Carignan. There is granite here so perhaps Gamay and Grenache will be added to the list!

Grapes planted in 16th century. Now we get these two gems from Chile.

A Los Viñateros Bravos Volcánico País 2015 Itata (Chile), 12.5%, €22.90 Le Caveau, Bradley’s (Cork).

If you don’t like your wines big and bold and prefer light and delicate, then this is one to try.

Colour is pale Ruby, shimmering. 

Aromas of wild strawberries and hints too (I'm told) of the local vegetation.

Palate is fresh and light, vibrant, delicate red fruit flavours, touch of spice, distinctive and refreshing, smooth all the way to the finish. The granitic soils have a lot to say and tell here and, perhaps, that is why, or at least one reason, this wine reminds me of a good Beaujolais. A quiet friendly one and Very Highly Recommended. 

Le Caveau say the fruit comes from very old vines (100 years and more) grown on volcanic soil that give it a mineral-y character. It is fermented and aged in concrete vats, the extraction is very subtle. The skins are basket pressed. The wine is then aged in large wood vessels and after 14 months is bottled with a very coarse filtration. 

The first País (also known, particularly in California, as the Mission grape) was brought by the conquistadors in the 1550s and, for centuries, the locals used it to make wines for themselves.

But bit by bit, the big companies began to use the big-name grapes and the ancient imports lost ground. Leonardo Erazo was one who wanted to reverse this trend, travelled the world for ten years to study wine and then came back and founded A Los Viñateros Bravos.

In Itata, Leonardo has worked with the scattered local farmers’ old vines—many well over 100 years, still growing as dry farmed, untrained small bushes—to enhance their traditional natural practices to align with biodynamic guidelines. His mission, throughout this journey, has been to bring a sense of place into the bottle. 

“In order to achieve that, we are working back into the organic viticulture (historically, a tradition here) with natural winemaking. We feel like we don’t need to fix nature but rather enhance its capabilities, thus to enhance its potential. We want wines full of life, vibrancy, tension and freshness.”

The Pais doesn’t have much of a status with the better-known wine commentators. For instance, Grapes and Wines blames the original Spanish Franciscan missionaries for not taking the trouble “to bring something better”. Leonardo Erazo is taking time and trouble and certainly bringing us something better!

Miguel Torres Reserva Ancestral Valle del Itata (Chile) 2014, 14.5%, €18.50 Marks and Spencer.

This blend of Cinsault (60%), País (25) and Carignan (15) has a deep ruby colour. There are fragrant aromas of plum, blackberry, some spice too. It is smooth, rich, juicy and fruity as it spreads across, tannins just about evident, and then a long dry finish. A warm and concentrated welcoming wine, ideal in autumn and winter. Very Highly Recommended.

Torres tell us this is produced from the fruit of 80-year old vines. These grape varieties were first brought to Chile by the early Spanish conquistadors around 500 years ago, so it is aptly named.

According to Wines of South America, Torres are dedicated to rediscovering “heritage” wines, based on traditional País, both in table red and sparkling bottlings.

All Torres vineyards in Chile have been organic since 1995 and this wine, a Platinum winner in Decanter 2017, is the inaugural vintage (fewer than 15,000 bottles) from these ancient vineyards.

Decanter called it a “friendly beast” with particular praise for its “lovely concentration”.This medium bodied wine is not meant for long-term keeping and you are advised to use it within five years. Try it with steak, charcuterie and empanadas.