Wine Club: Dry January? How About Dry-Farmed Wines!
Welcome to the first Wine Club release of 2020! We’d like to welcome all the new members to the club, and give a huge thank you to those of you that have supported Wine Club up to now. We have two stellar wines picked out for this release that you won’t want to miss!
The theme this month is dry-farming (yes, we did a little play on “dry January” for all of you who’s first sip of wine this year will be from Wine Club!). Dry farming requires incredible dedication and labor from vintners. The term refers to the practice of eschewing any irrigation at all. It’s only possible in some parts of the world, the Maule Valley of Chile being one of the best, and dearest to our hearts.
In fact, parts of Maule are so conducive to dry-farming that some producers banded together to create an official appellation called VIGNO. Many of you may recognize the appellation, as we love wines from it and generally carry multiple at a time. To receive the label, which currently only 20 producers have, a wine must hail from the southern part of the valley, come from dry-farmed vineyards of 30+ year old bush vines, be at least 65% Carignan, and spend a minimum of 24 months resting in a combination of oak barrels and bottles before release. Vintners also cannot utilize any heavy farming machinery, so everything is done either by hand…or horse!
The two wines we picked are each Carignan based, because this varietal does very well when dry farmed. A knock on the grape when grown in the Mediterranean is that it often absorbs too much water and loses character, so the lack of irrigation in much of Maule has a very positive impact on the quality of the wine. The first, from a friend of Grand Cata named David Marcel at Viña Maitia, has a wild berry nose and refreshing acidity. The second, a VIGNO, has a depth and complexity that will have you admiring each sip.
The release party starts this Sunday at 2pm. As always, we’ll have contextual wines open, and some tasty snacks to share. See you Sunday!