Collection: Roberto Henriquez

Roberto Henriquez farms 7ha of some very old bush vines; Pais (200 years old), Moscatel d'Alejandria, 'Corinto' (Chasselas) and Semillon (all 100 years old) which are spread across 4 parcels in the mountains near Cordillera de Nahuelbuta. He farms completely organically as part of a very small collective of Chilean winemakers who have a zero-input approach to their winemaking. Roberto’s vineyard has considerable soil diversity between plots: the soils vary between granite, red clay, quartz, alluvial and basaltic. Generally, it's a cool-climate region: cool springs (in summer temperatures go rarely above 30 degrees) and a quick transition from autumn to winter means that southerly latitude plays a huge part in this sort of climate, as does the mountain topography (lots of small hills, vines situated on inclines etc.).

Roberto started building his winery from scratch in 2015, focusing on making wines in the traditional Pipeño method - Pipeño is a uniquely Chilean style of winemaking that etymologically refers to wine stored in a pipa – a very large ageing vessel made of native Raulí beech wood. Culturally the term means wine of and for the people. Grapes are traditionally fully destemmed, open fermented in lagar (massive foudres of raulí), foot stomped and gravity fed to pipa soon after fermentation.

What we love about Roberto’s wines are the definition & sense of uniqueness that only the combination of aged vines, terroir & winemaking can deliver.