Attention turns to Pais

Chilean producers are breathing new life into Pais as they work on trying out different styles that suit its versatile character.

Los Despedidos from Viña San Pedro

From sparkling wines to light, juicy reds Pais is increasingly becoming visible in the portfolios of top producers – especially those with holdings in the southern regions of Maule, Itata and Bío-Bío where it is still widely planted.

As one of the original grape varieties planted in Chile and indeed across the Spanish Americas by the Jesuits and other holy orders (hence its name ‘Mission’ in California), Pais is a part of Chile’s viticultural heritage that producers are increasingly keen to protect.

A lot of old vine Pais is still consigned to bulk production and many vineyards of it and other varieties have been lost to the area’s booming logging industry.

Yet a new respect for the wines it’s capable of producing has ignited a wave of interest in the variety in recent years.

“It’s a very exciting time [for Pais],” Clos des Fous’ winemaker, Paco Leyton, told the drinks business. “We are working out how to work with it. It has a lot of character and now we have to understand it and try and improve it.

“It’s a grape I prefer in cooler places. Some people are afraid of that because it can have strong tannins and they say it has to come from hot places. No. Cool places and you press it very, very gently. It doesn’t matter if you don’t extract a lot of colour.”

The last point is particularly pertinent as, as Leyton explained, much of the Chilean wine industry is still somewhat enamoured of deeply-coloured red wines. But Pais is not like that and in its incarnation as a light-coloured, light-bodied, soft and juicy red wine it’s something both highly atypical from Chile but also right in line with current drinking trends in the hippest bars of London, Paris or New York; a fact Leiton is aware of.

“It’s a little controversial for our country but it’s clearly where everything is going,” he said.

Depending on how it’s made as a red wine Pais can have the character of a good Beaujolais Villages or even a Bourgogne Rouge. Some producers such as Viña San Pedro (its ‘Los Despedidos’ Pais pictured) and Miguel Torres favour carbonic maceration for their versions though some, such as Clos des Fous, prefer to press and then ferment as it helps retain the terroir character and Pais, like Pinot and Gamay, can have a very strong sense of place.

“I love the character of the wines,” continued Leyton. “If you try Pais from Namé, from Coronel you see the differences.”

Without doing down the huge variety of exciting and frequently delicious work being done with all varieties across the length and breadth of Chile, wines like Pais and Cinsault (often blended) strike one as reinvigorating the Chilean offering and turning the old cliché of Chile as plodding but dependable entirely on its head.

For more on Chile see the up-coming September issue of the drinks business.