The diversity of Maule terroir

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What are the soils and climate of Maule, and essentially what is Maule terroir? Eduardo Jordan, winemaker at De Martino, discusses this unique Chilean wine region and shows us exactly why the soils are ideal for dry-harvesting Carignan. There’s also a little surprise living in the Maule terroir – one that you might not have guessed… Take a look at the video interview to see who lives beneath the vines!

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Interview with Eduardo Jordan, De Martino winemaker

Clip transcript for the hearing impaired

Eduardo Jordan: Each part of Chile is very unique. And we are in the middle of Maule, and I think here we have different areas that have a different climate, different soils, and are special. For example here, we are close to Empedrado, and this area is very unique because we have deep soils with a little more clay than the other areas. And we receive the influence of the sea more easily, so in terms of the harvest time here it is three weeks, or one month, after the others. And we are, for example, the same distance from the sea with some other VIGNO vineyards we have in Sauzal. We are 38 meters from the sea, but we have a totally different timing for the harvest time.

Amanda Barnes: And would you say that the climate or the soil is more important for impacting the different regions within Maule for Vigno?

I think the difference between different areas in Maule, it is important the soil, but also the microclimate is very important. And also I think the management is very important. I think all of these elements produce the difference between the areas, and for me it is very important that you can see that difference in the wines. For me it is the key.

Excellent. And there’s something very specific about this soil!

Well, this soil and this area is very specific, we are in one of the highest points in Maule – in the areas where we have Vigno and Carignan. We are 250 meters above sea level, this is the average in comparison with the others that are at 40 meters above the sea level. And the soil is very unique, here you can see that we have caves of shrimps! These are the houses of shrimps, that they build in the winter time. So these shrimps are very special – they are earthy, you can eat them obviously. I invite you to maybe come in winter time if you want to taste them because really the taste is very unique! But also, that tells you how the soil is. That the soil has more clay, this is wetter, it has more humidity. It can receive more humidity also.

And that’s important for these grapes which are all dry harvested, in the ‘secano’.

I think yes – the quantity of clay is very important for these kind of soils and these kind of vineyards mainly, because we work in dry farming. So the quantity of water that we can store for the summer is one of the keys!

 

More on Maule terroir and old vine Carignan:

• Maule Fast Facts & Terroir Essentials
• VIGNO: Coming of Age
• Carignan Profile
• What is VIGNO?
• Maule and the Carignan boom
• Wine Drinking with Wine Makers: Arnaud Hereu and Andres Sanchez
• Terroir mapping Maule – how the University of Talca mapped out Maule terroir (en español)