The Chileans are as hardy as the English when it comes to enduring a picnic in freezing conditions. Most days in Colchagua are pretty hot by British standards and you’d think it was a safe bet planning a picnic lunch overlooking the vines. But no. Our poor host Vina Ventisquero was hit by rain and freezing winds in their new Lolol vineyard – just 7km from the sea. Later on, sheets of rain and a power cut put a cat among the pigeons for its outdoor dinner plans.
Despite the elements, we still had a good day and these guys are making massive efforts to understand their soils and sites. They’ve hired terroir specialist Pedro Parra, who always has a hammer in his hand to chip away at the soil, to get to grips with what variety should go where. He’s known as Rocky or Pit for digging trenches (known as calicatas) throughout the vineyard to understand what’s going on underneath the surface as well as using electromagnetic surveys. Parra also consults for Montes, Vina Corpora and many other wineries in Chile and it’s amazing to see the lengths the Chileans are going to, to understand terroir.
The mapping of vineyards throughout the vineyards I visited was amazing and I asked Parra why this was not being used more widely in Europe. “The problem is that people don’t want to understand the science of terroir in France, they like the mystique.â€
At Ventisquero’s Lolol vineyard, there’s some exciting, spicy Carmenere being produced by four-year-old vines with no green notes, and it’s pretty restrained. Felipe Tosso, head winemaker at Ventisquero says, “Many people say it’s too old to grow Carmenere here but it’s about fruit load. If you have a lot of fruit then you won’t get it ripe.†Simple enough but it also helps digging hundreds of trenches around the vineyard to find the right clay soils to plant the vines in. Disconcertingly, these trenches are just about the right size to dispose a body.
Head to their Apalta vineyard, also home to Montes, and they’ve planted Carmenere up at altitude. The heavens opened again while we looked at yet another calicata. This year’s block 23 got us all pretty excited. It’s destined for their Vertice label, a blend of Carmenere and Syrah but I’d like to see it bottled as it is.
