Winemaker Notes
This wine is made from 100% pure País grapes obtained from a 200-year-old vineyard located in Nacimiento, in which soils are granitic intrusive (solidified magma). The vines were managed traditionally without the addition of chemical fertilizers or herbicides. Santa Cruz de Coya is the name of the nearby village established in 1595 that was a key site of the 1598-1599 uprising that ended the Era of the Conquista. The Mapuches finally won the battle against the Spanish conquistadors.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The more serious País, the one with more depth, layers and complexity, is the 2020 Santa Cruz de Coya, my benchmark for País. It was produced with grapes from ancient vines on full granite soils with lots of quartz and which tend to deliver the most mineral red. It's from four separate blocks (three kilometers between them) that are still being recovered at the foothills of the Nahuelbuta Coastal Range in Bío-Bío. It's perfumed and elegant, floral even, completely dry and with 12.5% alcohol. This fermented in concrete and stainless steel and matured mostly in concrete, with 20% of the volume kept in concrete for one year. The palate is ethereal but with grip and energy, very fine tannins and a long finish.
Planted as the first vitis vinifera wine grape in the U.S., País has a long significant history in the Americas. Originally from Spain, where the grape is known as Listán Prieto, it was brought by Spanish colonists to Mexico in 1540 and, later, during the late 1700s, to Mission San Diego in California where it would take on another new name, Mission. Propagated for its use as a sacramental wine, Mission remained important in California until the spread of phylloxera in the 1880s. Somm Secret—In Chile it is called Pais. In Argentina, Pais is known as Criolla Chica.
A cool, rather wet region of southern Chile, Bio Bio is experiencing an increase in the development of quality wine production.