Felipe Tosso came to London to host a special retrospective tasting of Ventisquero’s most exciting wines of the past decade.
“We are known as Ventisquero Wine Estates because we have six different vineyards, and several brands throughout Chile,” Tosso explained of the family company started by Chilean businessman Gonzalo Vial.
Gonzalo is the youngest of 10 brothers, who started working in a farm like his father and eventually built a billion-dollar meat and fish company called Agrosuper. “He always wanted to make wine, his family had produced some bulk wine during his childhood,” Tosso recounted. From the first vines Gonzalo planted in 1998 to today, Ventisquero has made impressive leaps thanks to the exceptional expertise and investment behind it.
Tosso commenced the tasting with Tara, their ambitious wine project in the Atacama Desert – the most arid desert in the world. “One thing I love about Ventisquero is that we have always had the freedom to do a lot of experimentation.” “We first planted the vineyards in June 2007, and by August all the vines died. So we had to replant in September with help from consultants that work in the very north of Chile and come up with a special irrigation system.” This essentially involves flooding the vineyards repeatedly to push the soil’s high salt content down into the ground. Other experiments include a solera system of blending, for instance the 2018 Tara Chardonnay is made up of 90% grapes from the 2018 vintage, 5% from 2017 and 5% of 2019, creating a multi-faceted blend. The ageing vessels used are just as varied and include clay egg, untoasted foudre and stainless steel vat.
Felipe presented a part of the Grey range (named after the Grey Glacier in Chile's Patagonia region – though that is not where these vineyards are located). Both the Grey GCM (Garnacha, Carinena, Mataro) from Colchagua and the Grey Cabernet Franc from Maipo were highly expressive and refreshing, extremely drinkable and very well priced.
The Obliqua is a niche, high altitude Carménère from Apalta DO in the Colchagua region. Named after the old oak positioned in the centre of the vineyard and also featured on the label. This is a very stylish and cellar-worthy Carménère that has spent 18 months in French barrels and continues to evolve in the bottle with dark fruit and spice with subtle varietal green notes.
Felipe concluded with the latest launch, their now flagship wine, Enclave, which he produces with the help of iconic winemaker John Duval, previously of Penfolds and his own eponymous brand. It is a Bordeaux blend from their highest altitude sites on Pirque in the Maipo Valley, aged 18 months in French barrels and a further 12 months in bottle before release. The result is an exceptionally seamless, refined yet powerful fine wine that will age for decades to come. An overall impressive selection that offers something for everyone under one producer - from various Chilean regions.
