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A native of the Chilean city of Concepción, Roberto – largely inspired by his uncle - has always dreamed of making wine.
He studied to be an agronomist and enologist, then worked for large commercial wineries in Chile, South Africa and Canada. Returning to his homeland, Roberto spent some time with Louis Antoine Luyt, and this experience - as well as working with producers such as Mosse in France (Loire) - helped shape his perception of wine: natural winemaking was the path he wanted to follow.
Roberto is part of the very small-scale, zero-input agriculture and winemaking community of the Old South: the veteran farmers work traditionally, having never used chemicals. However nowadays, Chilean culture doesn’t pay much tribute to historic winemaking, and he felt he had to do something to try and keep tradition alive.
Alex visited Roberto last summer:
"First of all, don't go to Chile during winter, it's very cold! And also very good for skiing. But seriously, I have learned a lot about a different approach to wine culture which I have never experienced before.
"Roberto has given real context to his wines and it was interesting to see the variety of different terroirs of País. We visited other winemakers in the area and were always welcomed with open arms, invited into their homes and served deep-fried Sopapilla bread which is meant for special occasions. Chile has an incredibly welcoming culture.
"One of my culinary highlights was visiting a food truck on the side of the road run by a lady who was selling oven-cooked empañadas with pickled green chilli and vinegar. She would sell out by 11.30am!
"Roberto has recently taken over a vineyard in Santa Juana, the 66th vineyard ever registered in Chile, which means it's hundreds of years old. The soils are clay, which give País more softness and elegance - so stay tuned!"
Do wine lovers think of Chile often when they consider the world's finest wines? The reality is that most do not, and therein lies a problem for the country's wine industry, as there are plenty of treasures to be found.
We've had a chat with Roberto:
What led you to be a natural winemaker?
"I have always dreamed of becoming a winemaker, since I was a child, I just didn't know which way I should go about it. After having initially worked with commercial wineries in Chile, South Africa and Canada I returned back to Chile and properly learned about the (nowadays widely discriminated) Pipeño winemaking style. It is a uniquely Chilean style that refers to wine stored in a pipa – a very large ageing vessel made of native Raulí beech wood. Culturally it means wine of and for the people. Grapes are traditionally fully destemmed, open fermented in lagar (massive foudres of raulí), foot-stomped and gravity-fed to pipa soon after fermentation so it can be enjoyed quicker. After experiencing the way the vines were treated at the big commercial wineries it was clear to me that it wasn't the way I wanted to work. What I wanted to do was continuing the Chilean tradition combined with what I have learned from the small natural wine producers i have worked with in France. I wanted to work with our traditional grape varieties in respect to the vines and soils, this is very important to me. My whole family is involved with the work around the vineyard and my uncle, who inspired me to become a winemaker, is also still producing his own wines in Itata, but on a small scale."
[Click here for the full interview]
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