Torres launches Chile’s priciest Pinot

Torres has released Chile’s most expensive Pinot Noir from the country’s costliest new vineyard project ever.

As previously reported by the drinks business, the wine comes from a site near Constitución in the coastal part of Maule, 26km from the sea, and both the new product and sub-appellation are called Empedrado, meaning stoney, in reference to the slate soils at the site.

Speaking to db in Chile last week, Jaime Valderrama Larenas, managing director at Viña Miguel Torres Chile, confirmed that 2,400 bottles are currently being launched of the first vintage of Empedrado – 2012 – with shipping planned for early August.

He also said that Empedrado would be Chile’s most expensive Pinot Noir with a suggested retail price of around £90 in the UK, significantly more than Cono Sur’s flagship Ocio Pinot, which sells for around £30, and around 20% pricier than Stefano Gandolini’s Ventolerala Claro de Luna Pinot Noir, which has a shelf price of around £70 – and was Chile’s priciest Pinot.

Empedrado is also significantly more expensive than Torres Chile’s current range topper, the Manso de Velasco Cabernet Sauvignon, which retails for around £30.

The high price of Empedrado is both designed to reflect a confidence in the quality of the Pinot Noir from this entirely new Chilean plantation, but also, to some extent, the high cost of the project.

Having invested over US$4 million in the vineyard, which covers 15 hectares, Valderrama said it was “the most expensive planting per hectare in Chile by far”, stressing the high cost of clearing the pine trees which previously covered the area, and then creating terraces in the slate.

The terraced vineyards at Empedrado

Adding yet more to the cost of the project were initial failed plantings of Garnacha – the plot was selected in 1999 in an attempt to find an area with similar geology to Spain’s Priorat – while the Pinot Noir, which was planted in 2007, saw its first potential vintage releases from 2010 and 2011 decimated by local pests: birds from the surrounding forest ate the grapes, forcing Torres to cover the entire site in nets to produce a wine from the 2012 harvest.

Valderrama said that the trade reaction to the wine has been “good”, particularly in Asia, although he admitted that it was hard for Chile to charge such a high price for Pinot Noir, even though he believed that the wine was on a par with similarly costly examples from New Zealand or Oregon.

“The challenge for Empedrado will be selling it, that will be the most difficult part,” he stated.

Nevertheless, he said that he hoped that Empedrado would “bring better prices for the whole industry”, adding that such was the quality of the grape from the slate soils, he believed it wouldn’t be long before others in Chile would be looking to plant the variety in sites with a similar geology.

Although Valderrama said he knew of no other plantings allying Pinot Noir to slate soils, Germany’s Ahr region is famous for the high quality of its Pinots grown on steeply sloping slate-covered vineyards.

He stressed that the Empedrado project was another step in Torres’s pioneering moves in Chile.

Not only was Miguel Torres Chile the first foreign vinicultural company established in the country when it was founded in 1979, but Torres also brought the first steel tanks and the first French oak barrels to Chile, according to Valderrama, who said that the Empedrado project was the “the next stage.”

Empredrado: key facts

• The wine’s full name is Escaleras de Empedrado, meaning “The terraces of Empredrado”.

• The project was started in 1995 when Torres initiated a search for slate soil in Chile

• In 1999, Torres bought the 369 hectare Empedrado property in Maule, near Constitución, 180km south of Curicó (where the Torres Chile winery is based).

• In 2001 the terraces were constructed and in 2003 Garnacha was planted due to the similarity of the slate soils with those found in Spain’s Priorat region (although Merlot was also trialled).

• In 2007 it was decided to devote the entire site to Pinot Noir, although Torres may plant Sauvignon Blanc at Empedrado in the future.

• The investment so far has been US$4m (including buying the site).

• Empedrado is 370m above sea level and 26km from the sea.

• 15 hectares of terraced slopes have been planted to Pinot Noir, using the Gobelet pruning system.

• The first release of Escaleras de Empedrado is from the 2012 vintage, following seven months ageing in second-fill French oak barriques and 2 years ageing in bottle.

• Valderrama described the Pinot Noir as “European” in style.

Harvesting at Empedrado: everything must be done by hand