Santa Cruz de Coya Tinto - Païs

Païs | ungrafted +- 200 jaar oude stokken | graniet terroir | vergist op staaltank en gerijpt op staaltank en oude eikenhouten vaten | super fijne juicy stijl | diepe zure | zacht puur fruit | beaujolais + stijl! 

Roberto Henriguez

Roberto Henriquez gevestigd in het ruige Bío-Bío (rivier) in de Itata regio in het zuiden van het land. Roberto werkt enkel met 'mission grapes' ook wel Criolla's genoemd. Druiven die vanuit het Europese vastenland gedurende 15e - 17e eeuw mee werden gebracht op de 'missie' schepen richting Zuid-Amerika. In zijn wijngaarden vinden we Semillon en Moscatell en kleine beetje Corinto (Chasselas). Ik moet gelijk aan Zuid-Afrika denken waar Semillon en Moscatell ook zeer belangrijk zijn geweest bij de start van de wijnbouw. Qua rood is het Païs als druif, ook wel bekend in Spanje als Listan Prieto waar Envinate mee werkt op Tenerife. Roberto heeft ervaring op gedaan buiten Chili (Loire Mossé) alvorens hij in 2015 zijn eerste wijngaarden aanschaft in Bío-Bío en start met zijn bijzondere project. Langzaam groeit het project tot een kleine 25.000 flessen in 2019 en bouwt hij een nieuwe fermentatie kelder en is hij klaar voor een prachtige toekomst.

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.