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This is how wine is produced at 3,600 meters in the driest place in the world

2022-05-23T04:01:51.476Z


A cooperative of Atacameño producers revolutionizes the wine sector: two of its labels have received gold medals at the World Cup for Extreme Wines


In the driest place in the world, at 3,600 meters above sea level, a vineyard breaks through the desert landscape of the Atacama.

The half hectare of vines sprouts in the remote village of Sociare, nestled between ravines with views of the salt flat.

Farmer Cecilia Cruz, 67, a native of the area, walks through the volcanic sand floor covered with dry leaves.

With her hands, molded by working the land, she picks one of the few fruits that are on the vine after the harvest season: "Never in my life had I seen a grape being produced here in the heights," says the owner. from Viña Caracoles, the highest in Chile.

“My neighbors didn't think I was capable of removing the fruit.

Now they ask me to come see the bunches, to taste the grapes, they can't believe it”, she adds, proud of her viticultural feat.

As she speaks, a fox prowls around the vineyard.

A detail of the grapes from the Los Caracoles vineyard, the highest vineyard in Chile. Cristóbal Venegas

Like most of her neighbors, Cecilia was dedicated to harvesting and selling corn, broad beans and alfalfa.

In 2010, a man invited her to occupy her land in the highlands to grow vines.

After discussing it with her three children, she agreed to be part of the Atacama Tierra Fértil program of SQM (Chilean Chemical and Mining Society).

She was given the plants and the sticks, and was advised by engineers and winemakers.

Irrigation?

The village is supplied by the melted snow in the Andes Mountains that flows down a natural channel.

In the neighboring towns, the water that arrives has such a quantity of minerals and salts that it is not suitable for growing grapes.

But in Viña Caracoles, after four years of failed attempts, and applying the flooding system once a week, the clusters produced fruit.

In 2017, Cecilia joined the Cooperative of Viñateros de Altura Lickanantay, made up only of producers descending from the native Atacameños of Socaire, Toconao, Celeste and San Pedro de Atacama.

Of the fifty producers who started, 18 resist. The rest left because they were unable to harvest the fruit due to the extreme weather conditions or they did not dedicate the necessary time and care to it, says Fabián Muñoz, winemaker at the Ayllú vineyard, which brings together all the cooperators.

“In the central valley, the vine is in its optimal growth conditions.

Here it is the opposite, the plant is naturally stressed.

The fact that the vines grow in rocky soils, in height, with less oxygen, subjected to sudden changes in temperature and high solar irradiation, means that this stress generates quality control by itself, the skin of the grape is thicker and its flavor is more intense.

But we have to be much more aware of generating the necessary conditions so that it does not die on us”, explains Muñoz.

Héctor Espínola, owner of the Bosque Viejo sector vineyard shows his cultivation of grapes for winemaking, located in the town of Toconao. Cristóbal Venegas

In each bottle of the seven Ayllú lines, an assembly of the product of the 18 cooperators is carried out.

Two of its wines (Ayllu Moscatel Dulce 2020 and Ayllu Naranja 2020) received gold medals at last year's World Cup of Extreme Wines held in Italy.

This year they had as a goal to harvest 18,000 kilos of grapes and they reached 22,000.

The goal is to increase another 2,000 in the next harvest.

“When the cooperative began, we dedicated ourselves to agronomic work, then to oenology.

In 2020 we changed our image to focus on marketing.

We have obtained medals and now we are in the process of expanding nationally and internationally,” says the winemaker.

Chile is the fourth world exporter of wine.

Between pucarás (indigenous fortresses) and cemeteries of the ancient Atacameños, chemical engineer Samuel Varas, 43, set up the Chajnantor vineyard in Zapar.

It is one of the cooperative's most innovative vineyards.

"Between trial and error we managed to get a grape production with more technology," he explains.

“Due to an ecological issue, we did not want to accumulate water batteries, so we work with solar panels.

These capture sunlight and transform it into alternating current.

That current works like traditional batteries”, he maintains among his 2,000 vines fed by an automated irrigation system.

Part of the financing was obtained from a government program that subsidizes indigenous agricultural projects.

The first year of production took 150 kilos.

The third 500 and for the next aspire to the ton.

In some areas of the desert there are records of vine plantations since colonial times.

From the cooperative they explain that they have always worked with ordinary black grapes.

The innovation consists of planting premium vines such as syrah, cabernet, petit verdot, among others.

Héctor Espinola, 71, has been in viticulture for almost half a century.

He sold Creole wine.

He also pears and quinces, but in recent years the competition from other areas lowered prices and he no longer paid for it.

That is why when he was invited to join the cooperative, he uprooted all his fruit plantations and harvested a hectare of Malbec.

Today he owns the San Juan vineyard in Bosque Viejo, 2,500 meters above sea level.

“We pass the grape and the winemakers turn it into wine.

Each bottle is sold for 12 dollars and they give me 60% of the profit.

This year I put out 500 bottles,” she states.

“I am doing much better than when I was selling pears and quinces.”

Landscape of the Atacama desert near the Chanjnantor vineyard in the Zapar sector. Sofia Yanjari

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-05-23

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