2021 De Martino, "Vigno Carignan", Maule Valley

The Carignan vines that produce this wine have a backstory worthy of Pablo Neruda, who was born an hour to the southeast. After the 1939 Chillán earthquake devastated central Chile, the government needed to jumpstart agriculture fast. They planted Carignan throughout Maule to beef up the anemic local Pais (AKA Mission in California and Listán Prieto in the Canary Islands). The plan worked—until it didn't. As Chile's wine industry modernized, the wine business moved away. The Maule became a kind of backwater that locals fled for the more prosperous north. The Carignan vines were abandoned, left to survive on their own. Here's where it gets interesting. At 35.72° S, these vineyards sit at roughly the same latitude as Paso Robles in California. But thanks to the cold Humboldt Current, the Maule stays cooler and gets more rain—just enough for these abandoned vines to survive without irrigation. For 50 years, they grew wild, their roots plunging deeper and deeper into the granite and clay s