While I was all the way over in Chile, their chief winemaker Adolfo Hurtado was in Dublin. Luckily, I did get to meet one of their winemakers, Guillermo Sánchez who took us around the vineyards on bikes, the same bikes you’ll see on their bottle labels.
Cono Sur has a vast area of vineyards in the Curico valley, their HQ. They also have plots in all the main growing areas, from up north in Limari all the way down to Bio Bio in the south.
Organics at Cono Sur
What’s interesting about Cono Sur is that it’s organic (or on the way to organic) on a vast scale. One example of organic or biodynamic practice is the geese you’ll see waddling between the rows of vines. Apart from looking cute, and making a racket, they serve a real purpose. One of the main pests on vines in the “Burrito”, a weevil, not a Mexican meal, crawls up the trunk of the vine and chews on the new shoots.
One way to combat this would be spraying the little mites with pesticide, but in Cono Sur (and other vineyards) they use a mixture of garlic and a glue on a strap. The Burrito makes it up this far, is trapped by the glue or repelled by the smell of garlic, then in come the geese for a feed on these tasty burritos.
The wines
There’s quite a range of wines in Cono Sur, mainly single varietal. The quality is excellent and you’ll get many of their wines here in Ireland, from independents through to supermarkets. Pinot Noir is a big focus here, from their entry level, the Reserva (a favourite of mine), through to the premium “20 barrels select” and Ocio. Martin Preiur, a Burgundian Pinot maker is involved and you can see glimpses of the Burgundian style coming through in their Pinot Noir from the Reserva up.
It will be very interesting analysing another important wine coming form Elqui Valley in Chile.
CAVAS DEL VALLE ALTO DEL SILENCIO SYRAH ELABORADO Y ENVASADO EN ORIGEN POR RAYMUNDO PIRACÉS LÜBBERT D.O. VALLE DEL ELQUI – CHILE 2004 14 %
VISUAL ANALYSIS: limpid, ruby, quite thick
OLFACTORY ANALYSIS : intense, complex, fine
DESCRIPTION : fruity(marmalade), toasted, spicy(black pepper, clove), flowery(violet)
GUSTATIVE ANALYSIS : dry, warm, quite soft, quite fresh, quite tannic, tasty / vigorous
quite balanced, intense, persistent(8/9), fine
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS : mature, quite harmonious
GRAPES BLEND: syrah 80% + cabernet sauvignon 20%
WELL-AGEING : 12 meses en barricas de roble francés y desde 15 meses en la botella
NOTES : producción limitada 913 botellas
•At the olfactory analysis is not totally open but with various, interesting, and intriguing scents
•At the gustative exam is vigorous and persistent with a corresponding finale
•The finale is with fruit and marmalade
•EVOLUTION : ready to be drunk in this moment even if within 6/12 months it can provide us something more at the olfactory analysis
•PRICE-QUALITY COMPARISON: very good
•WINE-FOOD COMBINATION : red meat
•MY PERSONAL OPINION: a wine to drink and combine with meat cause its great salty note due to the terroir; the gustative-olfactory persistence is its best part
[...] had previously read about Cono Sur’s famous geese on sourgrapes.ie but still had to stifle a giggle when Adolfo explained that the geese were critical to keeping [...]