2021 Roberto Henriquez "Rivera Del Notro" Pais, Bio Bio Valley, Chile

ABOUT THIS WINE

100% País hand-harvested from 200+ year-old vines grown on alluvial soils at gentle, rolling foothills outside Nacimiento, 800m from the Bio-Bio river. Spontaneous fermentation with ambient yeasts (no temp. control) occurs in lagars before élevage in pipas over the course of 12-18 months. Unfined, unfiltered, minimal SO2 at bottling.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Roberto Henriquez studied agronomy and enology at the University of Concepción. From there, he travelled and worked with winemakers in Canada, South Africa and finally in the Loire Valley with Rene Mosse. Rene had a profound effect on Roberto’s perspective on winemaking and his progression into organic and biodynamic farming. Roberto, originally from Concepción, returned home after his time in abroad to begin making his own wine. Returning to the traditional Pipeño methods of the original winemakers of Chile felt intuitive to the winemaking style he had adopted. The rest of his story to present is pure progression to the pursuit of the purest wines in a true Chilean context.

His vineyards were personally and carefully selected. Working with long term fermage agreements, he farms all the land himself (with the help of farming animals). To the north, in Itata, he is working with a vineyard of old vine Semillon and blends that with Corinto (aka Chasselas) and Muscat d’Alejandria producing an orange style wine. A little further south, in Bío Bío, he is farming Pais, from which he makes the Pipeño and the Santa Cruz de Coya.