South America | Chile | Viña González Bastias | Naranjo Valle del Maule

Naranjo Valle del Maule

Varietals
40% Pink Moscatel , 40% Torontel, 10% Pais

Notes

VINEYARD: The home vineyard of the winery, González Bastías and a neighbor's vineyard named Porvenir. The ancestral vines of González Bastías are some of the oldest in the world - they were planted in 1815, and are “pie franco” meaning no rootstock. They are cultivated in head trellis, without irrigation and in soils of granite origin. The vineyard is home to herd of sheep that feed off the grass and add manure to the soil, then before spring, the soil is horse-plowed. Nothing is added to the vines or soil, not even sulfur. The vineyard is blessed with great biodiversity and good ventilation due to the ocean breeze that arrives to the valley every afternoon, therefore no frost or pests threaten production. The vineyard is 40km from the coast and has rainy winters and very hot summers, represented by a Mediterranean climate.
The Porvenir vineyard was planted in the early 1960s. Both vineyards are surrounded by the coastal mountain range and its forest.

VINIFICATION: Grapes are picked and crushed in March to assure a good acidity and well balanced tannins, a very unique Zaranda de Coligüe (bamboo rug) is still used to this day as the crushing method, just like two centuries ago, and juice and skins are fermented in open cement containers for 2-4 weeks. Wild yeast starts working within the second or third day and with the help of punch downs it is stimulated until the skins fall down to the bottom of the “lagar”. Then racked to refurbished Rauli foudres and clay amphorae to stay there during the winter. After 6 months the wines are bottled for an extra 6 months of aging. No filtering and only free-run juice is bottled.