All posts by "Around The World in 80 Wines"

"Around the World in 80 Wines" is a film, photography and blog project run by Montager Productions between February and April 2016. The subject is the people, land and passion of the 2016 Southern Hemisphere wine harvests including South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina.
CHILE, Maipo Valley

Hoops

Our final visit and the last wine to complete our list of 80 Wines was a particular delight.

We met Guy Hooper on our travels in Chile and we were enthralled by his story of a homemade winery in the Maipo Valley. Guy makes just one or two barrels of wine each year from the vines he planted outside his front door. His family helps him and he has a harvesting festival at his house when it comes time to pick. The blend of his wine he says is down to the birds and what they don’t eat from his twenty or so small rows of vines. Each bottle is hand numbered and Guy keeps a book so he has a record of who the wine was given to or drank with. He often asks his visitors if they have a special number

The favourite wine here was the 2016 Hoops which was still fermenting in Guy’s garage winery. Guy punched through the cling film wrapper on his plastic fermenting box and syphoned off a little of the yet to be released (yet to be fermented) wine for us to try. All we can say is 2016 will be a good year and yes it will be highly limited of course. We hope Guy will keep the number 80 from the 2016 vintage for us when it is bottled as that will be a pretty special ending to the project and a cool bottle to have at the film premiere.

Guy Hooper of Caviahue Wines at home. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Hoops wine is individually numbered. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Guy Hooper of Caviahue Wines checks his vines after harvest. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Hoops Wine. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Hoops Wine on the table. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Caviahue Wines. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Guy Hooper of Caviahue Wines walks through his garden vines. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Hoops wine in a garage at Caviahue Wines in Chile © Montager Productions Ltd.
The garden vines at Caviahue Wines. © Montager Productions Ltd.
An owl overlooks the Hoops Wine vines. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Guy Hooper of Caviahue wines tends antique wine equipment. © Montager Productions Ltd.

You can buy our images here on the Alamy stock photo agency page.

More info on the film is at www.vintagesixteen.com 

You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram 

You can also visit our favourite wines page.

CHILE, San Antonio Valley

Casa Marin

We also had a scout around the San Antonio Valley and dropped in on the Casa Marin winery in the town of Lo Abarco.

The wine from this tasting we added to the 80 wines favourite list was the Casa Marin Sauvignon Blanc 2014.

Casa Marin artwork © Montager Productions Ltd.
View of vineyards at Casa Marin © Montager Productions Ltd.
Casa Marin Logo © Montager Productions Ltd.

You can buy our images here on the Alamy stock photo agency page.

You can also visit our favourite wines page.

CHILE, Colchagua Valley

Polkura

Next was a visit to Polkura Wines which is located on the western side of the Colchagua Valley.

It was a cooler and wet day in the region and it was welcome to do an interview and a wine tasting with Sven Bruchfeld in his hillside cabin which was nice and toasty due to a wood burning stove working hard like we were.

The Polkura name comes from the hill where they have planted the vineyard and means  ‘yellow stone’ in the ancient Mapuche language. There is a large amount of yellow granite in the soils.  They only make 6,000 cases of wine at the moment which is very small on the Chilean scale of production and Polkura is part of the Movement of Independent Vintners MOVI in Chile. Polkura make 8 wines at present with 6 of them being Syrah based. Sven’s passion for Syrah is clear and he says: “Syrah adapts to so  many different soils that makes it a really fascinating variety to work with.”

Our favourite wine here was the Polkura Secano Dry Farmed 2013 which is 90% Syrah and 10% Grenache. It shows a lovely fruity second layer and well balanced minerality.

Polkura Wine Chile. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Overlooking the vineyard at Polkura Wines. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Wine tasting at Polkura Wines. © Montager Productions Ltd.

You can buy our images here on the Alamy stock photo agency page.

You can also visit our favourite wines page.

CHILE, Colchagua Valley

Montes

Next on the list for a visit was Montes Wines in Apalta in the Colchagua Valley. It is an impressive modern winery and despite being a bigger producer there definitely seemed a dedication to excellence. Even the cellar room plays music to the ageing vino downstairs.

Our favourite wine here was the Montes Alpha Pinot Noir 2006.

Front door to Montes winery in Apalta. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Vineyard at Montes Wines. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Inside the Montes winery. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Montes winery. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Entrance to Montes wines. © Montager Productions Ltd.

You can buy our images here on the Alamy stock photo agency page.

You can also visit our favourite wines page.

CHILE, Maipo Valley

Concha Y Toro

Some tricky traffic in Santiago made it a bit of a mission to get to the next winery which was Concha Y Toro in Santiago.

Our favourite wine here was the Concha Y Toro Terrunyo Carmenere 2013.

Concha Y Toro. © Montager Productions Ltd.
The cellar door at Concha Y Toro. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Carignon sign. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Aspirant Bouschet. © Montager Productions Ltd.

You can buy our images here on the Alamy stock photo agency page.

You can also visit our favourite wines page.

CHILE, Maipo Valley

De Martino

We braved the Santiago traffic to visit one of the wineries with a super long history in Chile. De Martino in the Maipo Valley has the family generation story dating back to 1934 when the family moved from Italy. We really enjoyed the wine tasting with Sebastian De Martino and then held an interview in the library amongst the aging bottles of vino.

Sebastian was a great host and is clearly passionate about the family business which he is a big part of and also the challenge of making ever greater wine despite the odd challenge such as an earthquake.

The favourite wine for our list on this session was the Vigno Old Vines 2013.

Sebastian De Martino © Montager Productions Ltd.
Corking the clay pots at De Martino. © Montager Productions Ltd.
The wine library at De Martino. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Clay pots at the De Martino Winery. © Montager Productions Ltd.
A chandelier at De Martino Wines. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Map of Maipo at De Martino Wines. © Montager Productions Ltd.
De Martino Cellar Door. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Tasting room at De Martino. © Montager Productions Ltd.

You can buy our images here on the Alamy stock photo agency page.

More info on the film is at www.vintagesixteen.com 

You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram 

You can also visit our favourite wines page.

CHILE, Colchagua Valley

Koyle

It was time to check out another valley in Chile so we headed south of Santiago to the Colchagua Valley to visit Vina Koyle in Los Lingues. We spent some time with Cristobal Undurraga and he did an interview in the barrel room telling us about the history and philosophy of Koyle.

We did a tasting and our favourite wine was the Cabernet Sauvignon Royale.

A Koyle cork in the vineyard at Vina Koyle. © Montager Productions Ltd.
The Vina Koyle winery. © Montager Productions Ltd.
The barrel room. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Vina Koyle vineyards. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Wines of Chile. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Koyle bottle tops. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Eggs at Koyle. © Montager Productions Ltd.
The bottle label machine. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Cristóbal Undurraga Marimón. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Different grape varieties at Koyle. © Montager Productions Ltd.

You can buy our images here on the Alamy stock photo agency page.

More info on the film is at www.vintagesixteen.com 

You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram 

You can also visit our favourite wines page.

Casablanca Valley, CHILE

Indomita

We joined a tour of the Indomita winery in the Casablanca Valley on a day off from filming. As you drive through the Casablanca Valley you kind of get drawn in by Indomita due to its fantastic position on the west side of the CH 68 road between Santiago and Valparaiso.

Our favourite wine here was the Duette Cabernet Sauvignon Carmenere 2013.

The Chilean Flag at Indomita. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Indomita winery in Chile. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Sauvignon Blanc sign. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Pouring at Indomita. © Montager Productions Ltd.
The view from Indomita winery. © Montager Productions Ltd.
Inside Indomita Winery. © Montager Productions Ltd.

You can buy our images here on the Alamy stock photo agency page.

More info on the film is at www.vintagesixteen.com 

You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram 

You can also visit our favourite wines page.

Casablanca Valley, CHILE

Emiliana

We did another Casablanca Valley tasting at the organic winery called Emiliana. There was some great picnic space here and really nice interior with a shop and a bar where you can taste.

The favourite wine we added to the list here was the Emiliana Signos de Origen 2013

View of vineyards from Emiliana © Montager Productions Ltd.
Emiliana Cellar Door © Montager Productions Ltd.
Chicken at Emiliana © Montager Productions Ltd.
Emiliana Organic Vineyards © Montager Productions Ltd.
Wine glasses at Emiliana © Montager Productions Ltd.

You can buy our images here on the Alamy stock photo agency page.

More info on the film is at www.vintagesixteen.com 

You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram 

You can also visit our favourite wines page.

Casablanca Valley, CHILE

Bodegas RE

We had received a recommendation from a local winemaker to try the wines at Bodegas RE. We had liked other places from tips like this so we made an effort to check it out.

Our favourite wine here was the Chardonnoir 2013.

IMG_8157

You can buy our images here on the Alamy stock photo agency page.

More info on the film is at www.vintagesixteen.com 

You can follow us on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram 

You can also visit our favourite wines page.