Santa Cruz de Coya Tinto - Païs

País | 200 jaar oude stokken | graniet en kwarts terroir | vergist op staal en cement | gerijpt op beton en oude eikenhouten vaten | fraîcheur | kruidig | diepe zuren | fijn | zacht en puur | beaujolais ++!

Roberto Henríquez

Roberto Henríquez is een van de meest besproken wijnmakers van Chili op dit moment.
Werkend langs de Bíobío rivier ongeveer een uur ten zuiden van Patagual maakt hij spraakmakende wijnen van oude druivenrassen zoals País, Semillón en Corinto. Stokken zijn hier gemiddeld 70 jaar oud met uitschieters naar 200 jaar voor de País. Ongefilterd, niet geklaard, geen koude stabilisatie en minimaal sulfiet zijn kenmerken van de uiterst zuivere en spannende wijnen van Roberto. Ervaring heeft hij opgedaan in o.a. Canada, Zuid-Afrika en met name in de Loire bij René Mosse. In dit wilde westen van Chili, zo’n 500 kilometer ten zuiden van Santiago ontpopt Roberto zicht als één van de wijnmakers die de geschiedenis van zijn Chili omarmt en daarbij wijnen maakt die lijnrecht tegenover de huidige wijnen van het moderne Chili staan.
Geen nieuw hout, teveel extractie en alcohol maar lichtvoetig, uitdagend, dynamisch en spannend. Artisanale wijnen en wijnmaker ten top. Sinds 2019 toegevoegd aan ons assortiment dankzij Midas, Graciás!

Review

With an explosive nose of red fruit, herbs and wild flowers, the 2018 Santa Cruz de Coya is one of the best wines produced with País that I have ever tried. It starts a little reductive and needs some time to open up and unfurl its impressive nose. This has to be his finest vintage to date, a wine that is ethereal but full of energy. It's intense and harmonious, with a sharp and austere palate, like liquid granite, with a dry finish. This comes from exceptionally old vines on full granite soils with lots of quartz and tends to deliver the most mineral red. A reticent and somewhat closed wine at first, it opens up nicely in the glass and surely has life ahead of it. This is again super mineral, more about the soil than the variety, and it's nicely textured, with complexity and depth and a very long finish. Again, groundbreaking País. Bravo! Luis Gutierrez 94/100

Roberto Henríquez is finishing his small winery next to his home in Bio-Bio that he's going to use in the 2020 harvest. He's one of the leading producers in the region (Bio-Bio and Itata) and makes some of the best País in the country. He has purchased two more old País vineyards and has new wines, all vinified and separated by soil type, which means he's increasing his volume. His target for the next few years is to stop buying grapes and work only with grapes from his own vineyards (and even plant new ones) and, with the completion of his winery, have better facilities to take care of the wines in his own space. The current output is around 50,000 bottles, and he hopes to maybe reach a maximum of 80,000 bottles. I tasted wines from 2018 and 2019. 2018 was a very fresh year in Bio-Bio, when he harvested very late with moderate alcohol, a little extreme. 2019 was a little milder, but he still considers it a cool year, and somehow the pHs are a little higher. All but one of the País bottlings are from Bio-Bio, and all of the whites are from Itata.