2021 LAS FERMENTADAS LA ZARANDEADA PAIS

Producer: Las Fermentadas 

Wine: 2021 “La Zarandeada”

Vineyard: 100% País, Quirihue, Itata. Chemical free no-till farming. 150 yr old, dry grow bush vines. 

 Lead winemaker: Alice L'Estrange

Winemaking: We picked 3 tonnes of grapes from this very old and very beautiful site in Quirihue. The vines are at the bottom of the hill so they see more water and nutrients, it’s a naturally healthy and biodiverse organic system, the opposite soil health next to the eroded and compacted slope. We want to champion sites that are self-sustaining into the future, when rainfall will become more erratic and set slopes with no top-soil harder to farm. The valley floors are teeming with life and we wanted to try a couple of different winemaking techniques to see what these vigorous vines can do. Having a high amount of foliage and bigger yield than vines on poor soils, the grapes struggle to fully ripen and this site naturally produces a low alcohol wine.

 La Zarandeada means “the one (feminine) done on the zaranda” 

We used this traditional wooden screen to hand destem just one tonne of this Quirihue País, a very high amount of whole berries remained intact throughout out the ferment. After six weeks on skins we pressed to tank, releasing more sugar from the whole berries, and ferment continued for a month longer. The wine sat under flor for 11 months, just one racking before bottling, and a small addition of So2 at this point to retain the fruit freshness. 

This is a very different wine from the saignée version of the same site. Here we find the whole-berry ferment has given a semi carbonic maceration effect to the aromatic profile. It’s a jubey fruity wine, a little earthy but fresh red berries and some gooseberries drive the profile. It’s fun and vibrant, a little barnyardy, very pretty with a bit of edge. Serve chilled to enjoy chalky tannins. 

 Original pencil drawing of the zaranda by Catalina Munita. 

LAS FERMENTADAS

My winery is open to any woman who wants to invest in and make natural wine and ferments. It's a difficult industry to learn in for anyone, especially for women, and especially in deeply machista and discriminatory rural Chile. Women are invited to make natural wine collaboratively: we all buy the grapes (each women buying what she can afford) and make the wines together, usually with one of us leading the winemaking decisions. We then buy bottles and corks, collaborate with female artists for the labels, find buyers, export, pay income tax, the whole process. I provide the space, the fermenters, the logistics chain, but the idea is that each woman understands and takes a risk in the whole process, and she has the opportunity to springboard from there if they choose. My collaborator Cindy Azua is the original fermentada, she now as her own label that I proudly import. In 2021 Isi Munita (rawmilk cheesemaker and chef) and Coline Marre (french oenologist) joined the winery team, and these wines have just landed in Australia. In 2022 vignerone Soledad Caamaño contributed her grapes and hands. We have learnt so much from making wine collaboratively and working in a radically different environment.