Maule Valley Wine Route

I am taking  literally the name of Maule Valley Wine Route, because I started about 10 years ago working as tour guide on the route.
The first time ever I took a bunch of tourist in my life, happened in front of Descabezado Volcanoe, in the middle of Maule Valley, for a half day tour to Casa Donoso and Casanova's wineries. It was hard, because my only knowledge was English, and nothing at all about wine.
My grandfather was a winemaker, but it didn't mean a lot in my case.
I just started from scratch and educating myself into the art and history of wine in Chile.
I don't pretend to be an expert, but I know that visitors are going to enjoy very much a tour around Maule's vineyards, because of the 500 years of tradition and history in producing wines.

Maule is more than just the name of one of the most important river in Chile, it is the name of one of the most traditional areas producing wine in Chile. Where the Carmener was rediscovered, where old Mission vines still are in production after 100 years.

I invite you to discover this valley and its wine. You are not going to name in vane Maule Valley Wine Route.

Wine, Tweet, Love: Caliboro, just Caliboro

Wine, Tweet, Love: Caliboro, just Caliboro: Caliboro is a hard bone in Mapudungun, the original language of Chile, but also, Caliboro is a vineyard in Maule, enclosed in the “secano” o...

Caliboro, just Caliboro

Caliboro is a hard bone in Mapudungun, the original language of Chile, but also, Caliboro is a vineyard in Maule, enclosed in the “secano” or traditionally called “rulo” it means a vineyard only watered by the rain in winter and the rest of the year, the vines survive the stress of extreme conditions to give birth to one of the unique wines of Chile, called Erasmo, a blend of three varieties of red: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Caliboro is hard, dry, exposed into the roughness of the sun without astonishing views of a great vineyard, without a pleasant green to pleased visitors. With a very compelling character in Caliboro you will find both, vines cultivated on the traditional European style, and vines cultivated in the old Spanish tradition called “head” or “cabeza” to keep the vine free. So that, the wine of La Reserva de Caliboro has not artificial flavours, has not chemical intervention in none of its process and follows the simple path of the terroir because the people who work there, has been following the path of the nature, generation after generation.

The wine of Caliboro is the most pure reflexion of the people in this part of Maule Valley, and it is so close to the people that its only wine was called under the name of one of the first workers on the vineyard, Erasmo. And not matter the “real” Erasmo past away, the wine maintain the spirit of simplicity and high quality that the people of Caliboro is proud of.

Many pages can be written about this particular vineyard, and many stories can be recreated for the imagination of visitors, but the pure essence of Caliboro has been there for so long, like the first Spanish conquer's who arrived in the area, bringing their “botijas” full of Spanish wines but with the secret desire to cultivate their own vineyard. And as in those old fairy tales, the wish came true almost 500 years ago and Caliboro keeps the knowledge of their people to produce one of the most incredible wines of Chile.

Before the “new” tendencies in the grow of vines like bio dynamic and new aged stuff appeared on the map of a winemaker's computer, the oldest people in Caliboro knew exactly what the vines needed to get the best of them in a good bottle of red wine. That knowledge has been there for so long but only now, very important winemakers, wine producers and main authorized voices in the world of wine, are turning their eyes to that places.

Ten years ago just to mention a mission variety wine should have made everyone who was someone in the world of wine, get into a conflict of taste and marketing. Ten years after not only Mission variety is in the look of the industry, also Carignan has been “rediscovered” for the pleasure of the most refined palates.

Terroir means in many ways just “tierra” as in the Spanish hearth, and the Terroir in Caliboro has been there for ever and ever, awaiting that time makes justice for their wines.

Caliboro is just the starting point to know the Heart of Wine in Chile, a trip to the deepest and more ancient vines of Chile, where the time goes back to the pass, where the origin of the red Chilean wines started.

This is a simple invitation to taste what Caliboro hast to offer to the visitor. Enjoy it!

Wine, Tweet, Love: Tour Guide for wine route needed

Wine, Tweet, Love: Tour Guide for wine route needed: One of the best characteristics about Chile is that is a long country with a big depression just in the middle of the territory, where you ...

Tour Guide for wine route needed

One of the best characteristics about Chile is that is a long country with a big depression just in the middle of the territory, where you can find the major concentration of vineyards of the country. We call this natural depression between Andes Mountain and Coastal mountain range, Central Valley or Valle Central.

Chilean had been producing wines in “Central Valley” for more than 500 years, mainly red robust wines, full of tannins and strong in alcohol. This tradition suffered a big impact when at the beginning of the 1980's a group of young Chilean winemakers try to get aboard international markets, with the production of red wines. First approaches were not so good, but Chilean wines were defined with a good potential.

This starting point contributed to create a great revolution in the wine industry in Chile, so big that even those very quiet and traditional vineyards, with old casonas made of adobe, tiles roofs, corridors and pleasant parks  suffered an incredible transformation to welcome buyers, distributors, international wine dealers, wine journalist and tourists.

In places like Santa Cruz, in the heart of Colchagua Valley, where before the “wine revolution” a Monday can be considered as quiet and calm as a Sunday, things really changed dramatically. The wine revolution changed for ever the face of those small and tranquil  towns, and incredibly this particular revolution also affected my life.

I came from a family strongly related to the Central Valley. My grandfather was born in Lontue, a small village to the south of Curico, located close to one of the first places in Chile were a vine was cultivated. Most of my childhood I lived in a vineyard, experienced the circle of the vines, the evolution of the grapes and the harvest seasons.

No matter of that, I  turned to  different topics when  growing up.  I went to University to study for being an English Teacher, but I never completed my degree. Incidentally, my first job on my journey  back to the vineyards was like a Tour Guide for the brand new Maule Wine Route in the year 2004

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My main strength for that job was not my great deal of knowledge of wine processes. To be honest, I did not realised that such knowledge was part of my background at the time. Maule valley wine route contacted me, because they needed someone able to speak English. Wine knowledge was not a "must" a day before a group of 10 “gringos” arrived for a tour.

I hardly remember what happened, the first time ever, I got a group of foreigners visiting Maule Wine route, but should had been a good experience for the tourists because the Route decided to contract me for the season.

Suddenly, I went back to my origins, rediscovering that I belonged to a vineyard. I began to enjoy the job and felt delighted with the opportunity to show to visitors the valley where I was born.

I worked as guide of Maule Valley Wine route for almost every summer season from 2004 till 2009. I passed throughout too many administrations and managers of the route, too many different experts, connoisseurs and winemakers. I also had the honour of working as the Tour Coordinator for the route between 2007-2008. But in between I also worked as guide for the Colchagua Valley Wine route and the very well known Wine Train or “Tren del Vino del Valle de Colchagua” and my experience in that route, gave me a lot of material, anecdotes, facts and ideas to write a book or a least, a blog.

I'm not an expert in wines, I just enjoy wines, but there are some chapters of this particular world of the Chilean wines, that was not made from the point of view of another prestigious winemaker, not from the corner of investors and owners of vineyards, not from the need to full fill a wall with international prizes and medals.

There are many stories in the fact that after the revolution of the wine industry in Chile, there was a great transformation in very enclosed vineyards, full of traditional ways of creating wines, keeping the secret as hidden as possible. This places needed to start opening the iron gates of the entrance to let tourists to discover them. So that, after the winemaker, the agronomist, the manager, the pickers, the secretaries and different staff, appeared in a vineyard a new charge to fill, it was the Tour Guide. That was my place in this industry, and my personal perspective of the world of wine in Chile. 

Lady Gaga's wine and tweets

I could attract more attention and more social media wine enthusiastic if I write this post in English, but English is not my first language, not even my second one. I speak in Chileno and then Spanish or more precisely Castellano. My other language is about wine, or a language closely related to the vines in Maule Valley.

There is a great deal of snobbery, specialised commentators, wineblogger's and wine experts everywhere, but I'm not sure how many of them are just “intellectuals of the vine” writing from a very comfy office in an international publication, or how many of those had got the chance to taste dust and sun of harvest time.

I know that there are many wine connoisseurs as strains of vines in the world, so many bloody experts as bottles of wines per year. But at the end of the day the only voice is the wine, and the different ways to get new markets.

Yesterday, @alawine made me think about Lady Gaga in the world of wine. What can be more opposite than the pop start and a bottle of wine? Perhaps the vision of the very baroque artist's name in a vintage wine on an oak barrel is not an expected twist for the next London Wine Fair, but we should recognise that as crazy as it sounds, also looks very creative mixture.

I think that “GAGA Wines” should have a very good chance with a full bodied wine, a little rough but definitely inspired and hallucinogenic.

I would like to buy a bottle designed by her, with a diamond imitation cork, in a psychedelic label with the double G in Ruby red sparkling trace. This should be a very desirable product for marketing campaigners and should help to stop the head scratching of the industry for a while. Lady Gaga would have the honour to revitalise wine as a product for young people, a segment that is not naturally inclined to drink wine.

One of the main tasks in wine industry is to attract youngsters. Tradition is not a bad thing, but for certain Lady Gaga sounds more appealing than an old family name, that has been producing wines from biblical times.

Let's say it, Lady Gaga can help more to impact and develop a new market segment, than traditional ideas of the world of wine. We need a winery keen to take the risk and a serious talk with Lady Gaga's agent to make a deal. There are many chances of new products in the wine industry, coming from very unorthodox sources. Innovation is not necessary to be put on the product itself as in the intention to get a quite unique product, full of character and thought for new markets. It is very hard to teach a new trick to an old dog, but when you have defined a product as weird as "GAGA Wines" for certain you don't go to the "usual suspects". You try to apply all that new marketing strategies from those webinar about how to make profitable your tweets, and how to create an audience on Facebook for starting promoting of a new concept, a new way of drinking wine.

On the other hand, in any place where  a vine grows, and people are  concerned about the new harvest season, we should continue tasting dust, having the sun as our witness, that to produce a good wine it is just the first step, in the long journey to bring it to market.