The next morning, Neil and I were leaving the Gaucho Three in Mendoza to visit other estates, while we headed towards Chile. It's a quick hop over the Andes from Mendoza to Santiago – we can't have been in the air for more than 25 minutes – but it was certainly spectacular. We were picked up by Julio Bouchon, and it was a three-hour drive to Mingre (pronounced “man – grey”), the Bouchons' family house, surrounded by vineyards. It is a delightful hacienda, built in the middle of the nineteenth century, and in the process of a gradual renovation. There is nothing flashy here – everything is simple and tasteful, although the enormous stag's head on one wall might divide opinion.
Mingre is to the south of Chile, and therefore cooler than those regions further north, and only 30 km from the coast, so benefits from a maritime influence. It is also at the fairly high altitude of 750 metres. In the summer, this means day temperatures of around 32 Celsius, while the nights are cool, dropping to around 12 degrees. At the time of our visit, early spring in the southern hemisphere, it was cold.
Julio gave us a little family history. His ancestors had first come to the Maule Valley at the end of the nineteenth century. In the sixties, his father, Julio Senior, studied oenology in Bordeaux with Emile Peynaud, but returned to Chile to find the family estates had been re-distributed by the government as part of a land reform programme. He then set up his own two-aeroplane domestic airline, and by 1976 was in a position to start buying back land.
In 1991, Ron Potter updated the winery, importing rotating fermentation tanks from Australia, and since then, the Bouchon's have worked hard to improve every aspect of their production, re-grafting vines, reducing yields, picking later to maximise phenolic ripeness, introducing selection tables for reception of the whole harvest, bleeding the vats to increase concentration, re-introducing the use of their epoxy-lines concrete tanks for the premium reds, and pumping over four times a day for 25 minutes, rather than once a day for a longer period.
The family house and winery at Mingre are surrounded by 50 hectares of vineyard, and another 550 hectares of land for cattle grazing and forestry. This makes for an environment rich in flora and fauna. It's a pretty dry area, with virtually no rain between October and May (their summer and autumn), which helps limit vine diseases, but not so dry as to make viticulture impossible without irrigation. Some of the vineyards are dry-grown, while others are equipped with drip irrigation systems. The clay soil is poor, limiting vigour and benefiting fruit quality.
In addition to having a detailed inspection of the winery, where notices displaying its safety record speak of Bouchon's application for ISO status, we were able to see the shower rooms and staff canteen that employees use. All the facilities were immaculate, and our impression was that workers are treated very well at J. Bouchon. In fact, given how sparsely populated the region is, Julio points out that they have to be if they are to have sufficient manpower to run the business.
We returned to the house in order to taste the range of wines:
Before lunch, Julio Senior arrived in his six-seater plane, and joined us for empañadas on the veranda. He then announced that he would take Neil and me by plane to see the Las Mercedes and Santa Rosa vineyards on the other side of the hill. Before jumping into the plane, we had to drive the length of the landing strip in order to confirm the complete absence of cows. Cows and aviation don't mix well, apparently. Then, after Julio had completed the safety checks, we were airborne and gazing down on the winery and vineyards. Around five minutes later, we affected an alarming but, in retrospect, perfectly safe, landing at the airstrip adjoining San ta Rosa David Round on a horse.
Transport in these parts is not for the faint-hearted, and we toured the vineyards on horseback. Julio Junior is an enthusiastic and highly skilled polo player, a hobby that requires large numbers of ponies to be stabled on the estate. I made a mental note to check the small-print on my travel insurance before making any more buying trips.
Santa Rosa, in addition to stables and landing strip, does have 100 hectares of vineyards on sandy, rocky soil on the banks of the River Maule. This is where the majority of the Sauvignon Blanc is grown. Nearby is Las Mercedes, where another 100 hectares are planted in one large, sloping block of vines. The soil type is similar to Santa Rosa, but with a little more clay.
It was beginning to get quite dark, so we returned to the house, to be joined for dinner by Patrick Valette, former owner of Château Pavie, who acts as a consultant for Bouchon. His assistant Gonzague was also in attendance, as was Pedro Bouchon, Julio's cousin and the General Manager of all of the family business interests.
Patrick Valette's cost to Bouchon amounts to far more than his fees, such is his attention to detail and uncompromising view of what sacrifices need to be made to produce top quality wine. However, this investment is certainly paying dividends. His influence is mainly on the premium reds, which are becoming very exciting indeed. He is also behind their latest attempt to make a Pinot Noir, but his approach seems to be, unsurprisingly, a little more Bordelais than Bourguignon, and the result lacks a little elegance. This is certainly work in progress. Maybe they should send Laura, their winemaker, to do a vintage in Burgundy.
After weathering Patrick's wide-ranging interrogation, which embraced issues as diverse as golf handicaps and Argentinian wine, the evening drew to a close. We had a very early start the following morning in order to catch our plane home from Santiago, and in the absence of much in-flight entertainment on Iberia, we used part of our long flight to muse over how impressed by Bouchon we had been. The developments in vineyard and winery, the attention to detail and the quality of the wines had greatly impressed us. And it's a very inspiring place to visit.
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