Chile — wine

Maule

Chile's largest wine valley and its historic heartland — the Maule Valley stretches from the Andes to the Pacific in the Maule Region, home to some of the oldest surviving vines in the Americas. Ancient ungrafted Carignan (Cariñena) and País (Mission) vines — some planted by Spanish missionaries and Basque immigrants in the 18th and 19th centuries — produce wines of extraordinary character through the natural wine movement's interest in recovering these forgotten plantings. The region's granite soils, Mediterranean climate, and cool Pacific breezes create conditions for wines of remarkable freshness despite the latitude.

Year Rating Notes
2021 Outstanding for old-vine Carignan — cool, long season producing wines of exceptional freshness and mineral precision.
2020 Good vintage with Pacific cooling providing freshness. Old-vine País wines of unusual elegance.
2019 One of the best decades for Maule Carignan — concentrated, fresh wines with remarkable old-vine depth.
2018 Reliable vintage across the valley. Granite-soil wines of excellent character.
2017 Classic Maule vintage — deep, earthy wines with the characteristic granite mineral of the valley.