Maipo Valley
Chile's historic Cabernet heartland, on Santiago's doorstep.
The Maipo Valley wraps around Santiago, and it was here, in the mid-19th century, that Chile's modern wine industry began, when landowners imported French vines — shortly before phylloxera devastated Europe. Because the pest never crossed the Andes, many of those vines' descendants still grow on their own roots. Maipo's speciality is Cabernet Sauvignon, especially from Alto Maipo, where vineyards climb the Andean foothills and cool mountain air sinks into the valley at night. The wines are known for blackcurrant, mint and eucalyptus and a firm, fresh structure. Carménère, long mistaken for Merlot, grows alongside.
Grapes grown here 3
What the region makes
Blackcurrant, mint and cedar, with firm tannin.
Cabernet with Carménère, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
Dark fruit, red pepper and spice.
Worth knowing
Chile's natural barriers — the Andes, the Pacific, the Atacama and Patagonian ice — kept phylloxera out, so many vines still grow on their own roots.
Carménère was identified in Chile only in 1994; until then it was sold as Merlot.
Try this region if you like structured Cabernet with a fresh, minty edge.
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