Leo Erazo among young vines on his property at Cobquecura
The path that leads to Leonardo Erazo’s winery is narrow and slippery. The mud is thick from rain that has not stopped for almost a week, and the pine forests on both sides barely let in the light.
I should have listened to Erazo when he told me to rent a 4×4 – instead I’m inching across the mud in a sedan. Fortunately, it manages to reach the end of the road, where the pine trees suddenly give way to a spectacular view.
I can see the slopes of the round, green peaks of the coastal mountain range, about 4km away, dropping down into the Pacific Ocean.
Tasting notes for eight of Erazo’s must-try wines below
This place is called Cobquecura. It has no viticultural tradition to speak of, but it is close to the southern Chilean DO region of Itata, 500km south of Santiago, where vines have been cultivated for 500 years.
Itata’s vines fell into neglect when Chile’s Central Valley rose to vinous prominence from the mid-20th century, but they’ve undergone a renaissance in recent decades, with forward-looking producers such as Erazo rescuing this rich heritage of old, dry-farmed vineyards.
Today, a growing number of vintners work small vineyards of ancient País, Moscatel or Cinsault vines in Itata.
After the fires
The rain has stopped falling for a moment and the sky allows timid rays of winter sun to sneak through the dense layers of clouds. Erazo, 45 years old, is waiting for me among the vines. He wears a thick sleeveless vest, shorts and working boots. He smiles with his usual warmth.
We haven’t seen each other for a couple of years, since just before Itata was devastated by the 2023 fires that destroyed, according to USDA Foreign Agriculture Service reports, about 440,000ha of land (mostly pine forests), killed 26 people and destroyed houses, wineries and an unknown number of old vineyards.
Fortunately, the fire did not reach Erazo’s property in Cobquecura, but it did destroy four of his six hectares in the Guarilihue area of Itata – the heart of the valley and the source of his best Cinsault wines.
‘It was very fast. In a matter of hours there was nothing left. Fortunately, the winery was not damaged, although the flames came close,’ he remembers.
Erazo is slowly recovering from the disaster, trying to revive his 6ha of burned vines in Guarilihue, while rearing his 4ha of new vines at home in Cobquecura.
He planted the latter in 2020 – all to white varieties such as Chenin Blanc, Albariño, Riesling and Chardonnay – and they are just now producing their first wines, which are not yet on the market.
These are fresh and refreshing white wines, marked by the cold breezes of the Pacific ocean. ‘I tried to make reds, like País or Pinot Noir, but they didn’t work, he explains. ‘It is too cold here. Maybe if the soil held more water they could ripen, but the stone soil doesn’t retain anything.’
One of Leo Erazo’s new vineyards 5km from the Pacific ocean
The journey so far
After graduating as a winemaker and working briefly for Chilean wineries such as Pérez Cruz and Via Wines, Erazo decided to travel the world. He made wines in Priorat, Catalonia; Sonoma, California; Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand; and also in South Africa.
From 2012 to 2020 he was the winemaker at Altos Las Hormigas in Mendoza. Seduced by the rich heritage of old vineyards, he decided to settle permanently around Itata.
‘In 2010, while working as a viticulture professor at the University of Concepción, I was able to get to know the valley more closely and also made my first Cinsault wines,’ he says.
Cinsault seems to be what attracted Erazo to Itata, but instead of starting a new life in the region’s interior, where plenty of old Cinsault vines exists, he moved west to Cobquecura, on the coast north of Concepción.
Erazo lives with his wife Zjos and their four children – Emilia, Esteban, Matías and six-month-old Teresa – in their ocean-facing home, next to the…
Source : https://www.decanter.com.master.public.keystone-prod-eks-euw1.futureplc.engineering/premium/leo-erazo-inspired-by-itata-and-chiles-wild-south-537485/
