NV Louis-Antoine Luyt Pipeno "Coronel de Maule"

Farmer: Raul Perez. 100% Pais from organic, dry-farmed bush vines 200 to 300 years old on iron-rich heavy clay soils with granite and quartz in the Coronel del Maule sub-zone of the Maule region. The bunches are harvested by hand and manually destemmed using a traditional zaranda; fermented spontaneously with indigenous yeasts in open wooden lagares; and aged briefly in in large wooden tanks called pipas (from which the name “pipeno” is derived), with part of it aged 2 months in stainless steel and clay tinajas. Perez does a saignee to concentrate the red. The wine receives a very small amount of sulfur and a gentle filtration before bottling in liters.

The Coronel del Maule is easily the smokiest of the Luyt pipenos with a distinctly agave-like vegetal quality. Bruised strawberry and stewed cranberry fruit lend a bit of juiciness to soften up this robust, more tannic Pais.