From the Fields to the Garage? Chile's Old-Vine Wines

During the 1990s, I met Derek Mossman in Santiago when he was working in the tourism sector and then lost touch with him until last year, when I learned he had formed the Garage Wine Company with his Chilean wife, Pilar Miranda. It’s part of the Movimiento de Viñateros Independientes (MOVI), an alliance of small-scale Chilean vintners focused on products beyond corporate Cabernet Sauvignon and other industrial varietals.

In March, just before returning to California, I had a chance to visit Derek at the Caliboro vineyards, in the Maule region, where he harvests and processes the grapes for their old-vine Carignan - a rejuvenated sensation in the industry. Recently, he responded to a series of email questions I sent him on his company and other recent developments in the local industry.

WBB: Please tell me something of your background – when we first met, which must have been nearly 20 years ago, you were involved in the tourism industry in Santiago. So far as I know, there are not a lot of Canadians involved in wine - how did you become involved, and how much time do you spend in Maule every year? I understand you still live in Santiago.

DM: I came skiing in the eighties, (a year it did not snow in New Zealand) and then worked bringing skiers to Chile and other adventure travel…

My kids go to school in Santiago but we make the wine in Maule and I spend five to six months of the year there and my wife spends three to four.

WBB: What is the terroir in your part of Maule, and how did you choose it? I was a little surprised how isolated the area was, how dry it is despite the nearby river, and the lack of irrigation. Are you the only vineyard that’s dry-farming?

DM: Dry-farming is the colonial history of viticulture in Chile. Here in Maule and further south in Itata are the two cradles of viticulture in South America. This was the frontier of the Spanish colonies so, whilst they began in Itata, they had to retreat to Maule further north when the Mapuche resisted too fiercely. The horse-plowed, old-bush head vines of today are direct descendants of these times. They have not been planted but rather are mugrones made to fill in the vineyards when certain plants grow feeble. A mugrón is a shoot that is not pruned and is bent back under the earth to create a new plant. A few years later the umbilical is cut as the roots are big enough to support the new vine.

WBB: Most of Chile’s wine country closely resembles California. What California wine district would be the closest counterpart to your part of Maule?

DM: I do not think Maule should be compared with anywhere else in the world. The centuries-old history, the unique vines, the undiscovered quality and the fact farmers still plow by horse is unknown anywhere else on this planet.

WBB: What varietals do best in your part of Maule? I know you specialize in old vine Carignan, but I have a bottle of your 2011 Cabernet Franc from Alto Maipo that I’ve been saving for a special occasion. What other varietals (and blends) do you produce? Do you acquire grapes from elsewhere?

DM: Each wine since 2001 has a Lot # number: 1) Cabernet Franc – Maipo; 2) Cabernet Sauvignon – Maipo; 3) Carignan – Maule (we make four different wines each from a small farmer’s own field blend). Since the [2010] earthquake we have been investing in the farms and guaranteeing a fair price to the farmers.

WBB: What is your annual production, and what percentage is exported? What acreage is devoted to wine, and do you produce anything else?

DM: We produce 3.500 cases per year. We also produce port, on 11 hectares of old vines.

WBB: Who controls the Chilean wine industry? Is the Movimiento de Viñateros Independientes a response to the big producers? How many of you are there, and where are you? Would you say you’re less conventional than big producers like Concha y Toro?

DM: MOVI is a healthy counter-culture aimed at a burgeoning worldly wine public. And yes we are heaps less conventional - a convent is less conventional than the Chilean wine industry, I am afraid. That said, we are but a small minority, for the majority of the world's romance will continue to be made over a ten dollar bottle of wine made in a large vat of a corporate winery for many years to come. The good news is that a ten-dollar bottle has gotten a lot better over the past few years - especially if you buy Chilean.

It is not so much that [the big producers] control the industry, although they certainly keep tight control on the price of the farmers' fruit; what irks me is that they feel they 'own' the wine business. They own their shares of their wineries and that is all. No one owns an industry, anywhere. More lately I think the powers that be have come to realize that the spirited, smaller produces have in fact helped to raise the tide as it were, and that all of the boats big and small are rising with this tide. And thus the small are not such a nuisance anymore.

WBB: Are you open for tours and tasting? One thing that’s always caught my attention is that Chilean winery visits are expensive – more so than in California and much more so than in Argentina (particularly Mendoza). Why won't or can’t Chilean wineries have free or low-cost tours and tasting?

DM: If there were traffic tours would cost less, but if there isn’t traffic it is hard to subsidize the costs. I think anyone wanting to taste good wines is willing to pay 10 dollars per great wine tasted and this is the real market. Any less and you must necessarily have a big winery that is selling their brands by giving away samples.

WBB: Is there anything I’ve overlooked that you would like to add?

DM: The roofs of reticence placed atop unknown areas such as Maule have been lifted by a new taster and in Parker’s report the best wine from Chile is a Carignan from Sauzal – the heart of this god-forsaken dry scrubby wine country from yesterday in the process of being re-discovered.

A 24-Hour Drought in Chile? Plus, My Own Personal Wine Lodge

Chile, like California, often experiences drought – it’s a wet-winter, dry-summer Mediterranean climate and, at the moment, summer is fast approaching. Right now, on the outskirts of Talca, it’s 86° F with 27 percent humidity, the kind of weather that often calls for a cold beer (though I’m not much of beer drinker).

Still, just a few minutes ago, at 8 pm Santiago time, Chile officially became a dry country. On election day – the country chooses tomorrow between former president Michelle Bachelet and the weak conservative candidate Evelyn Matthei – there is a de jure 24-hour period of prohibition during which you cannot sell or purchase alcohol (though that doesn’t mean you can’t stock up before 8 pm).

I think I understand the reasoning behind this – in principle, a sober electorate should make a better choice, but that’s open to question. Having witnessed the results of last November’s US congressional elections, I'm tempted to suggest that alcohol consumption should perhaps be obligatory, especially in so-called “red states” (which, however, may not have been sober anyway). Meanwhile, as zero-hour approached, I was enjoying a pisco sour (like the one above) at Casa Chueca.

Last night, though, prohibition was not a problem. For the first and probably only night in my life, I had a 13-bedroom winery guesthouse all to myself, at the Maule valley headquarters of Viñedos Julio Bouchon. At Mingre, about 30 km inland from the coastal city of Constitucion, it's a sprawling colonial casona with Francophile furnishings, two internal patios, citrus trees, olive trees, and even a rustically styled hot tub outside.

I was working, of course, and got a tour of the modern winery facilities, whose maceration and storage tanks stand in the open air, rather than in a building, but shaded by tarps. It produces the usual Chilean varietals, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in several different lines. It didn’t surprise me to hear that 90 percent of their production goes for export – that’s not unusual in Chilean wineries – but I was rather shocked to learn that 70 percent of those exports go to Russia. It’s only now breaking into the US market, through Sausalito-based Vine Connections.

On a warm afternoon, before falling asleep in a comfortable room to nearly total silence, I indulged myself in several glasses of an excellent Sauvignon Blanc from their Mercedes line – not their top, apparently, but still outstanding – to accompany a dinner of gnocchi and pesto. I also took away a bottle of Carmenere that I’m looking forward to. The Mingre line (pictured below) is another step up, but I can't imagine it's that much better.

From the Epicenter: Chile, One Year Later (3)

In fact, the last leg of my journey through post-earthquake Chile took me farther from the epicenter, but not so far that the damage was not palpable. At the town of Curepto, for instance, virtually the entire parish church was covered with corrugated aluminum as it awaits repair, and many buildings were framed with two by fours and other supports to keep them from collapsing.

After leaving Talca, my first overnight was at the British-run Hacienda Laguna Torca near its namesake national park, a lush coastal wetland that’s home to 2,000 black-necked swans. Just inland from the town of Llico, a prime windsurfing site that got hit by the tsunami but is recovering nicely, the Hacienda suffered no serious earthquake damage, but an invasion of salt water affected its olive groves. With time and rain, fresh water is recharging the aquifer.

To the north, thanks to broad sandy beaches and the left break at Punta de Lobos, the town of Pichilemu is one of central Chile’s top seaside resorts and prime surf spots, but that also made it vulnerable to the tsunami. According to Marcel Janssen, the Dutch owner of the Pichilemu Surf Hostal, the tsunami rolled right past the bar (across the street), but the quake itself damaged the walls; it’s since been upgraded into a more stylish beachfront bar, with a deck and heated saltwater tubs for relaxation.

In and around Santa Cruz, though, the devastation was such that, at the time, the irrigation canals in some vineyards literally ran red - with wine. Where the 19th-century parish church stood facing Santa Cruz’s Plaza de Armas, there is now a vacant lot, and many other buildings are still in ruins, even if the remarkable Museo de Colchagua and its adjacent Hotel Santa Cruz Plaza have quickly recovered - the controversial Carlos Cardoén has poured money into the city, but he can’t do everything.

Some of the surrounding communities suffered serious devastation. At nearby Huique, the quake flattened parts of the historic residence of former president Federico Errázuriz Echaurren and knocked over the tower of its adjacent chapel. Other parts of the complex, already in neglect after passing into the hands of a peasant cooperative, are virtually beyond repair. At Apalta’s Bodega Neyen, where I took a tour, several hundreds bottles of premium wine fell off the shelves and shattered on the concrete floor below, but nobody was injured. The remaining stock is now protected by chicken wire that prevents it from falling.

Probably the most seriously affected was the picturesque village of Lolol, where virtually every adobe sustained severe damage and many of them still bear warning tape and spray paint tags that say “danger, total collapse.” The church is still standing, but fenced off and services now take place in an adjacent tent.

That said, the region is on the road to recovery. Amongst the devastation, Cardoén’s Museo Artesanía Lolol is an exceptional crafts museum that’s well worth a detour from Santa Cruz, and most of the wineries on the Ruta del Vino de Colchagua (whose offices appear in the photo at top) are once again open for tours and tasting. When I passed through Santa Cruz, Cardoén’s hotel was booked solid, but I managed a couple nights at the Hotel Terraviña, operated by Danish journalist Anne Sorensen and her Chilean husband.

Surrounded by its own vineyard (once part of the nearby Laura Hartwig winery, which is newly open for tours), the Terraviña opened shortly before the quake and, in its aftermath, found itself part of the relief efforts. Government officials and business travelers helped get it through the first year but, as tourist traffic has recovered, it’s become a hotel again. One of its attractions is that, though it has no restaurant of its own, two of Santa Cruz’s best - the Italian Vino Bello and the Peruvian La Casita de Barreales - are only a short stroll away through the vines.

From the Epicenter: Chile, One Year Later (2)

Among and around excursions to Talca’s stunning Andean backcountry, which I described in a recent post, I visited two of the cities most affected by the 2010 earthquake and subsequent tsunami: Talca itself, and the port of Constitución. Here, even more than in Concepción, the impact of the event is palpable, with vacant lots and damaged or destroyed landmarks, not to mention ordinary businesses and houses in a region whose traditional adobe architecture has been seismically vulnerable for centuries.

In the course of my week-plus in the Maule region, I spoke extensively with Franz Schubert of Trekking Chile, who used his Casa Chueca guest house as an informal base for relief efforts; in fact, his guests chose to forego the rest of their vacations to chip in with assistance. I recorded my conversations with Franz, which also touch on several other topics, but it will be some weeks before I’ll have time to transcribe, edit and post them.

Talca itself suffered more than any other place of its size that I’ve seen - there are many vacant lots, and in some places only segments of old adobe walls stand, with rubble still to be removed (demolition and debris removal appear to be the growth industries here). The landmark school near the new pedestrian mall, divided into separate wings for boys and girls, is due to come down; there is local sentiment to restore it, but it looks beyond repair - or at least beyond economic repair.

On a visit to the regional Sernatur tourist office, I spoke with my longtime friend Verónica Morgado, whose rented B&B crumbled in the quake, but she and her husband managed to get all their guests out safely. They are building a replacement, which they expect to open for next season at year’s end.

Verónica’s elderly mother was not so fortunate even if, in one sense, she was more fortunate. Out of town for the weekend, she avoided the collapse of her 19th-century adobe, but its psychological impact was even more powerful. She fell mute after the event and, failing to respond to therapy, died shortly thereafter. Obviously, this wasn’t a direct fatality, but the quake certainly appears to have been a contributing factor.

Still, Talca is rebuilding. Its most hopeful precedent may be the city of Chillán, whose massive 1939 earthquake (8.3 on the Richter) left the city’s face transformed forever - like Talca, Chillán lost nearly all of its historic adobes, and had to rebuild almost from scratch. A year ago, though, it got through the quake with little damage, despite the greater magnitude and its own proximity to the epicenter.

Constitución may have a longer road ahead. The port city, best known for its pulp plant, suffered a double hit. The quake flattened many of its older houses and toppled some of the walls of its landmark church, but here the human tragedy was even worse: as the tsunami worked its way up the Río Maule estuary, it swept away more than a hundred campers who were celebrating the end of summer on Isla Orrego, a small wooded island (pictured above). The waters even reached the Plaza de Armas but, astonishingly, spared the Hostería Constitución opposite the island.

A few km south, at the port of Maguillines, the tsunami wiped out several large warehouses and perhaps a dozen seaside restaurants, a couple of which have rebuilt. The winding road there, though, shows what Constitución still has to offer. Spectacular igneous stacks have resisted the ocean’s erosive force and one of them, Piedra de la Iglesia (pictured above), is covered with nesting pelicans, gulls and cormorants plus, on its lower levels, southern sea lions basking in the sun. Just beyond road’s end, Playa Maguillines features other granite outcrops - some vertical pitches would offer challenging sport to adventurous free climbers - and outstanding perches for ocean fishermen.