Vina Villalobos - Vinedo Silvestre 2018 (750ml)

A light but deeply expressive bottling of Carignan from old vine, long uncultivated plantings of Carignan! The story of this fruit is almost unbelievable. The grapes are from 80 year old Carignan plantings that we're abandoned over 40 years ago yet continued to grow and crop without human aid. The grapes now grow along with native vegetation, reaching up trees and shrubs and interlaced with local grasses.

The vines have been growing without any farming for decades, thriving in the wild conditions. No pruning or training, no irrigation, no pesticides, nor tilling. All hand harvested grapes, some from bunches growing meters of the ground hanging from trees. The grapes are crushed but not pressed, only the free run juice is used. Fermented spontaneously with native yeasts and aged neutral French oak. Unfined, unfiltered, and with only minimal s02 at bottling.

Villalobos was founded in 2008 as a family project. Led by Enrique Villalobos, an artist who also painted the label, along with his wife, Rita Encina. Their sons Martin and Alejandro also participate in the winemaking. The winery is in the Colchagua Valley, part of the large Central Valley region that is the heart of of Chile’s wine industry. The particular vineyard for this wine is in the town of Lolol, which experience the cooling Humboldt Current winds. - Tristen Gild

The main varietal of our vineyard is the carignan whose feet were planted in the 1940s and 1950s in the Villalobos family estate, located in Lolol, in the Colchagua valley and which is a characteristic land of the non-seaside area. irrigated with hot days accompanied by short, cool nights in the summer.

These vines have never been treated in a traditional way, however they have evolved rather wild and free, without being subjected even to the size or the use of chemicals. During the last sixty years the vine has grown among the original flora of this terroir composed of native trees such as maitenes, culenes, hawthorns and mulberry trees, among others.

It is the constant quest to obtain a unique wine thanks to the first qualities of the Carignan grape variety, a rare variety on the national territory that gave birth to the Villalobos winery. This one takes its meaning in the heart of Enrique Villalobos’ sculpture workshop in the Valley of Artists.

The art of carving as well as the art of wine making evoke a union in the process of creation itself. Both rely on the transformation of matter made available by nature so that the artist can model it into a unique and unique work.

It is in this context that this vineyard decides to move away from the traditional modes of intensive exploitation of monocultures. Our goal is to produce vintages that reflect the specific climatic conditions of the year and reflect their particularities. We will thus benefit from the unique, organic and wild quality of our vines that favor a harvest of grapes whose flavors and aromas are in harmony with those of the Chilean countryside.