SPANISH
28 Jul Vineyard of the Year 2022: Recognition of a great
After 25 years of constant search for quality and innovation, Viña Morandé has a solid portfolio that make it earned the title “Vineyard of the Year” by the renowned national publication Descorchados. Its experimentations in wines, its work exploring new designations of origin and various winemaking methods, are undoubtedly unprecedented milestones in the national industry.
When the prominent winemaker Pablo Morandé decided to establish the winery in 1996, he had a very clear objective: his focus would be centered on innovation. And so it was, from its beginnings, Viña Morandé has stood out in the national industry for being a different vineyard, without so many rules and with an admirable audacity when producing wines.
Not for nothing, its founder was the first to bet on the Casablanca Valley and plant his first vines there. Pablo Morandé saw incredible potential in this terroir, and he was not wrong. Today it is one of the most internationally recognized valleys for the high quality of its wines.
Also, Viña Morandé was one of the first vineyards to rescue terroirs and ancestral winemaking techniques. Its innovative and experimental spirit has led it to try, over and over again, with different appellations of origin and strains, many of them non-traditional, in the search to create attractive oenological creations.
This same innovative and pioneering spirit has made Morandé have fields located in different valleys of the country, from north to south. His latest projects being Ránquil in Itata and Traiguén in the Malleco Valley, which produce high-quality grapes and have made possible the production of wines such as Colinas de Ránquil and the Black Series line, respectively.
Another milestone that deserves to be mentioned is the creation of the line called “Aventuras”, which was born with the idea of highlighting the unknown diversity of terroirs in Chile. This line, which was created almost at the same time as the vineyard, sought to add value to the old vines of the Secano Interior vineyards in the Maule and Itata regions.
Currently, and for more than 10 years, Ricardo Baettig, chief winemaker and technical director of Viña Morandé, together with the winemaking team, have taken up the Aventuras project, giving life to the current portfolio of wines consisting of 10 labels and currently known as as Morandé Adventure.
And that’s not all, Morandé has also been a pioneer and innovator in the category of Late Harvest and Sparkling wines, with the production, for example, of Golden Harvest, a late harvest wine that is produced only when the right conditions are generated in Casablanca that allow harvesting grapes infected with noble botrytis. As for sparkling wines, the winery has a high-quality portfolio and the ability to show a complexity hitherto unseen in Chile.
As can be seen, Viña Morandé’s history is marked by milestones and moments that are key in the history of national viticulture. And it is that his clear vision and approach has permeated each of his wines, making it a vineyard that reflects his passion and commitment to the wine industry.
This is how the “Vineyard of the Year” award for Descorchados consolidates a path that began in 1996 and has remained constant for 25 years, in which Morandé has amply demonstrated its dynamic, adventurous and groundbreaking essence.
