The Story
These vines were planted before Chile had electricity. Felipe Ramirez started Dominio del Cuarzo in 2019 with a plot of roughly 130-year-old Pais bush vines -- less than a hectare of them -- in Nipas, in Itata's Secano Interior, where the soils are sandy silt over black basalt near the river and nobody irrigates anything. Pais came over with the conquistadors and then spent centuries being written off as peasant wine, which is precisely why gems like this survived: nobody bothered to rip them out. Farmed organically, gently made, and completely alive. Light, tart, faintly wild, and best with a serious chill on it.
Description
These vines were planted before Chile had electricity. Felipe Ramirez started Dominio del Cuarzo in 2019 with a plot of roughly 130-year-old Pais bush vines -- less than a hectare of them -- in Nipas, in Itata's Secano Interior, where the soils are sandy silt over black basalt near the river and nobody irrigates anything. Pais came over with the conquistadors and then spent centuries being written off as peasant wine, which is precisely why gems like this survived: nobody bothered to rip them out. Farmed organically, gently made, and completely alive. Light, tart, faintly wild, and best with a serious chill on it.
