Winemaker Notes
These vines are two kilometers inland from the Bío Bío river. The granitic soil has its origins in the volcanic activity that defined the costal range called Cordillera de Nahuelbuta, which translates to "Cougar’s Land," or Tierra de Pumas in Spanish. The wine itself is appropriately named due with its complex, fruity and meaty character.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Tierra de Pumas was produced from grapes from Santa Juana in Bío-Bío, from three hectares of old vines, the 77th vineyard registered in the zone, so one of the oldest remaining vineyards in Bio-Bio and possibly all of Chile, he says, at 250 years old. The soils are a mixture of granite and quartz with some clay, and the lower parts are more sedimentary, what is locally called Serie Santa Juana, because the vineyard is quite large, two hectares.
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.