A Los Viñateros Bravos

Itata ValleyChile

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Leo Erazo’s Los Viñateros Bravos and his eponymous label wines come from the Guarilihue area of Chile’s Itata Valley, the first settlement of Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th century who brought their own vines. Dominated by ancient pink/orange granite dating from the Cretaceous period and younger volcanic soils, the minimalist and naturalist, Leonardo Erazo, practices organic, biodynamic, and dry farming with the own-rooted, ancient 150-300-year-old País bush vines. All the wines are vinified with spontaneous fermentations in concrete (eggs, spheres, and more), amphoras, large wood vats and food-grade polymer containers, and they’re pressed in a vertical, wooden press.

A Los Vinateros Bravos - 2022 Pipeño Blanco

Price: $23.00
Size: 1000ml
Availability: 

Out of stock

Type of Wine: White
Grape(s): 100% Muscat de Alexandria
Style: Mineral, Elegant and Aromatic

GROWER OVERVIEW

Leo Erazo’s Los Viñateros Bravos and his eponymous label wines come from the Guarilihue area of Chile’s Itata Valley, the first settlement of Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th century who brought their own vines. Dominated by ancient pink/orange granite dating from the Cretaceous period and younger volcanic soils, the minimalist and naturalist, Leonardo Erazo, practices organic, biodynamic, and dry farming with the own-rooted, ancient 150-300-year-old País bush vines. All the wines are vinified with spontaneous fermentations in concrete (eggs, spheres, and more), amphoras, large wood vats and food-grade polymer containers, and they’re pressed in a vertical, wooden press.

VINEYARD DETAILS

Pipeño Blanco comes from 2.4ha of 60% Moscatel de Alejandria and 40% Torontel with an average age of 80 years (2023) on a soft slope facing west exposed to the Pacific winds at 300m on granite bedrock with a 80-100cm clay and quartz topsoil both derived from the underlying bedrock.

CELLAR NOTES

Skin contact (destemmed) natural ferment for 3 weeks in cement at 20-23°C. ML when naturally occurred. Aged 9 months in 30hl cement vat. Sulfites added only at bottling. No fining or filtration.

About The Wine

The oldest wine ever produced in Chile back in 1551 was called Pipeño. Old vines and natural winemaking make these wines a great introduction to the old vines of Itata. Pipeño Blanco is made with 100% old-bush vine Moscatel planted in the 1960s, and the Pipeño Tinto is made with 100% old-bush vine Cinsault, planted almost a hundred years ago. Both Pipeños are unfiltered and intentionally hazy, which has been the tradition of Pipeño since the oldest memory of these wines. Pipeño is the greater regional “terroir series,” while Viñateros Bravos is the “soil series,” where the old vines have a greater interaction with each specific mother rock, highlighting their mineral characteristics and wineprint. The “cru series” is the result of ten years of soil mapping across the Itata hills, and these are the vineyards that got destroyed. In these wines the layers of complexity and depth, and the longer aging potential are more apparent. All the wines are vinified in concrete (eggs, spheres, and more), amphoras, large wood vats and food-grade polymer containers, and they’re pressed in a vertical, wooden press.

This wine embodies Itata’s Pipeño tradition, which is to say that it’s a farm wine meant to be consumed young & fresh. It is a field blend of mostly Moscatel from dry-farmed, own-rooted, ancient vineyards. Unfiltered because it’s made for drinking right after harvest, they are appropriately put in liter bottles to quench thirsty palates, while still having enough to share.