Viña Vik vineyards in Chile's Millahue Valley
Mike DeSimoneFrench varieties and winemaking techniques altered the face of Chilean wine in the 19th century and the effects of France continue to be felt in Chile today. The phylloxera epidemic of the mid to late 19th century first wreaked havoc on vineyards in France, causing French winemakers to seek other lands in which to ply their trade. Wealthy Chilean landowners had already begun importing French grapevines; an emigration of enologists from Bordeaux to Santiago followed.
Don Silvestre Ochagavia Echazarreta, who founded Viña Ochagavia in 1851, is widely credited as the first Chilean to import and grow French Vitis vinifera varieties from Bordeaux, including Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon. About twenty years later, Don Maximiano Errazuriz founded Viña Errazuriz, also using French varieties and employing French techniques. Both continue to make award-winning wine today, as do their contemporaries Undurraga, Concha y Toro and Cousiño Macul.
Today vintners in Chile are crafting single vineyard and small plot wines that rival the best of Bordeaux, often at a significantly better value. Montes Folly, Altamana, and Don Melchor are among the “Super Chileans” that exemplify the best the country has to offer. A newcomer to the Super Chilean designation is VIK, founded by Norwegian-Uruguayan billionaire Alex Vik. With the aim of making the finest wine in South America, he hired French consultants Patrick Valette and Gonzague de Lambert to find the land on which to grow what are commonly called “the Bordeaux varieties.” After locating 12 small valleys spread out over almost 11,000 acres in Chile’s Millahue Valley, Vik brought in a team of experts to test the soil, water conditions, base temperature and wind currents in order to determine perfect placement for different grape varieties. The result is a series of plots with distinct microclimates, which many experts agree is the basis for making great wine.
Winemaker Cristian Vallejo with a bottle of VIK.
Víctor GalleguillosVik also hired winemaker Cristian Vallejo, a native Chilean who worked in Spain, France and Italy before returning to his native country. Among the notable wineries on Vallejo’s resume are stints at Viña Valdivieso and TerreMater in Chile, Clos Mont Blanc in Spain, and France’s Chateau Margaux, Leoville Poyferre, and Chateau Berliquet. Vallejo returned to Chile in 2006 to begin work at VIK, an estate winery that produces three wines, the entry-level Milla Cala (SRP $45), midrange La Piu Belle( SRP $100), and high-end icon wine VIK (SRP $165), an exquisite Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend that has received scores in the mid to high 90s from a variety of international wine critics.
Here Cristian Vallejo talks about his background, Viña Vik, and what makes the wine so special.
World Wine Guys: How did the years you spent making wine in Spain, France and Italy influence your technique when you returned to your native Chile?
Cristian Vallejo:France showed me how to manage the vineyard throughout the year, prune the harvests, work the tannins from the vines, and make the wine. It all starts in the vineyard. Spain showed me how to express the best side of your terroir in the wine and finally, Italy taught me how to extract delicately pure and fine aromas from the terroir.
WWG: Who were your winemaking mentors and how did they impact the way you make wine today?
CV: Paul Pontallier and Philippe Bascaules from Chateaux Margaux focused my vineyard management and improved my precision in winemaking to achieve the perfect tannins with tension, structure, and finesse.
WWG: Viña Vik is often described as a “holistic winery.” What does this mean?
CV: The ‘whole’ in holistic is our wines. Every single step involved in producing them is important and considered. We take that awareness of all elements and how they interact to make the most elegant, dynamic and expressive wines.
WWG: The winery at Viña Vik is very beautiful. Can you describe some of the features of the winery that contribute to its sustainability measures?
CV: Our winery was built with the intention of maximizing nature’s energy. The reflecting pool that sweeps across the entrance to the winery serves the function of cooling the barrel warehouse below it and maintaining humidity levels. The white fabric roof is a unique material that simultaneously illuminates the winery during the day and regulates the temperature of the winery from the outside. When we have to cool down a tank during the summer the quantity of energy needed required is less.
The reflecting above Vik's underground winery helps to cool the barrels of wine stored below.
Mike DeSimoneWWG: How do the site of Viña Vik’s vineyard and the climate of the Millahue Valley affect the quality of the wine made there?
CV: The vineyard is high-density planted for low yield to concentrate flavors. We use 100 percent rootstock to homogenize ripening and harvest time for each parcel. The geography of Millahue is expansive and dynamic giving a variety of sun exposures, altitudes, and soils. All of that translates into terroir, complexity, and depth of flavor. The Pacific Ocean sweeps the vineyard with very cold breezes that preserve fresh flavors in our wines.
WWG: How would you describe the three tiers of Viña Vik wine, Milla Cala, La Piu Belle, and Vik? Other than price, what makes these wines distinct from one another?
CV: VIK, for me, is a book telling the beautiful story of passion and dedication where every glass is a chapter and every sip is a page. The blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc comes from the coolest area of the property giving this wine complexity, elegance and, layers of flavors and aromas.
Milla Cala is the introduction to Vik; it’s the abstract of that story of dedication and passion. Elegance and easy to read. A beautiful wine for every moment.
La Piu Belle is the art of the new world, passionate but very refined. It shows other flavors of our terroir with different varieties like Carmenere and Syrah from a different valley of the property. It expresses totally different aroma based on blackberries, dry plums and spicy notes.
WWG: In what ways does Vik compare to the great wines of Bordeaux?
CV: Bordeaux inspires me with its layers of aromas and its depth of color. Our wines share elegant tannins, fine structure, linear acidity, and richness of aroma.
June 30, 2020 at 09:00PM
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Can Chilean Wine Be As Good As Bordeaux? Ask Winemaker Cristian Vallejo - Forbes
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