Chile ‘perfect’ for Barbera, claims Zonin winemaker

“Chile has the perfect climate for Barbera”, according to Stefano Ferrante, head winemaker for Italy’s Zonin family, as he unveiled a range of Chilean wines at ProWein last week.

Dos Almas comprises a selection of seven wines from three different regions of Chile

Ferrante has been heading up the latest project from Zonin 1821, which comprises a selection of seven wines from across Chile under the brand Dos Almas, meaning ‘Two Souls’ – a name chosen to reflect the union of Italian cellar techniques and Chilean terroir, as well as two winemaking families: the Zonins and Chile’s Vial family, who own Viña Ventisquero, and provided the vineyards for the project.

Although the new range of Chilean wines from Zonin does not currently include any wines made from Italian grapes, Ferrante believes the climate and soils of the country are ideal for certain varieties from his homeland.

In particular, he believes that the terroir of Colchagua would suit the late-ripening Barbera grape, famous for making noticeably fresh red wines from the Piedmont region of north-west Italy.

“I would like to plant Barbera in Chile, because I believe the country has the perfect climate for the variety,” he told the drinks business during a tasting and discussion at ProWein on Tuesday 20 March.

Continuing he explained, “Barbera has a very long maturation and the end of the season in Chile is stable and sunny and quite warm, so you can ripen varieties for a long time, which is perfect for Barbera, which has a strong acidity and needs a late vintage to control the acidity.”

When asked about a specific region for Barbera, he said that he believed that Colchagua would be “ideal” – an area south of Santiago famous for red wines, particularly from the Carmenère grape.

“Where Carmenère grows well I think Barbera can grow well too,” he stated.

The Dos Almas range includes a Carmenère blend from Colchagua, and Ferrante admitted to db that he was initially sceptical that this particular grape – which originally hails from Bordeaux (and was historically believed in Chile to be Merlot) – could produce wines of great quality.

“At first I was not convinced about Carmenère, and it is a very hard variety [to manage], but now I have fallen a bit in love with it – it has a good balance, with some herbal and balsamic flavours, as well as some ripe red fruit and freshness,” he said.

Indeed, he said that he would be using the variety to produce an “icon wine” for launching next year, which will be a blend of 30% Carmenère, 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Petit Verdot from a 20 year-old vineyard Apalta in Colchagua.

He also told db that he would like to make a pure Syrah from Apalta too, as he believes that this variety also performs extremely well in the sub-region.

Dos Almas comprises three ‘Reserva’ wines, three ‘Gran Reservas’ and a sparkling wine using grapes from three different areas: Casablanca, Colchagua and Maipo.

While the Zonin family own the Dos Almas brand, the vineyards used to grow the grapes for the project are all owned by Viña Ventisquero.

Ferrane explained, “We choose the vineyards and the harvesting date and Ventisquero do special vineyard management and vinification for us – which is a bit different from their normal style – and we send a winemaker from Italy to oversee it.”

He also said that Zonin 1821 is not only considering working with Italian grapes in Chile – Nebbiolo as well as Barbera – but also “Italian techniques”, such a a ripasso style red.

Although the range currently contains seven wines, Ferrante said that he hopes to add one wine each year to the range, as well as expand the volumes from 350,000 bottles today to 1 million bottles within the next four years.

The wines:

• Reservas: Sauvignon Blanc from Casablanca; Cabernet Sauvignon from Colchagua; Carmenere from Colchagua

• Gran Reservas: Pinot Noir from Casablanca; Cabernet Sauvignon from Maipo; a red blend from Maipo

• Sparkling: A charmat-method Chardonnay with a touch of Moscatel from Casablanca