A los Viñateros Bravos Granítico Blanco 2022

A field blend of 60% Moscatel, and 40% Semillon, made as a hazy white that borders on an orange. The wine has notes of bright fresh stone fruit, grapefruit, and orange blossom, with high acidity and a refreshing salinity on the palate. Made from ancient bush trained vines in Chile's Itata valley. 

Leonardo Erazo created “A Los Viñateros Bravos” winery in the heart of the Itata region (south of Chile). The vines of Itata thrive in a steep hills landscape without irrigation. Bush vines are very old in this region, and finding 100-year-old vines is common here. The volcanic and granitic soil provide an extraordinary environment for root growth resulting in very healthy vineyards. Leonardo doesn’t interfere with the terroir to bring a strong sense of place into the bottle. Winemaking is simple, using only native yeast and concrete tank for fermentation and aging.

The Itata Valley is a historic cool climate wine region in southern Chile, known for dry-grown, own-rooted bush vines often over 100 years old. Chile has been known over the last century for producing wines from French grapes, but regions south of Santiago hold a much longer viticultural history, with winemaking brought over by Spanish colonists in the 1500s.

Local grapes Pais (Spanish grape Listán Prieto) and Moscatel (Moscato of Alexandria), have adapted to the landscape over the last 500 years. Farmers work the soil, often using horses. While this isn't in vogue in the regenerative winemaking conversation, here it's needed to open the soil before three months of rain, and close it again to lock in moisture over the long dry season.

After years of producing bulk wine to be transported North and added to Bordeaux blends, a new wave of producers in Itata are reviving vineyards, and looking to pre-industrial winemaking techniques to make structured, elegant wines, expressive of the unique history and terroir.