Chile’s oldest wine region.
The Maipo Valley is home to Chile’s oldest winemaking tradition. It was here, in the late 16th century, that Jesuit missionaries founded Santiago, the country’s capital city and a location that straddles the Maipo River. The missionaries soon planted vines in their mission gardens and began making wine for use in religious services. In 1740, Don Baltazar Reyes bought some land on the eastern edge of Santiago and established what would become Chile’s first commercial winery: Santa Ana (now owned by Concha y Toro).
The Maipo Valley is only half an hour from Santiago and its international airport.
You can access the Maipo Valley and its wines from Santiago, which is only half an hour away and has an international airport. This is important for wine seekers, as you can get there easily via air travel. The valley benefits from the Maipo River, which passes through it on its way to the sea. It’s a river system with a long history of flooding and changing course, something that helped establish how the region looks today. The Maipo Valley’s name comes from the Mapuche word “maitu” or “village,” and was used in reference to where they lived along this river before being conquered by Spanish conquistadors in 1541.
It is also the source of Chile’s most famous red wine brands, as well as a number of high-end wines.
Apart from the above-mentioned grape varieties, you will also find Merlot, Syrah, Petit Verdot and Pinot Noir in Maipo Valley.
The most important red grape varieties in Maipo are Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere. However, the most important white grape varieties are Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling.
Maipo is also famous for its sparkling wines in particular those produced by Concha y Toro using the traditional method of secondary bottle fermentation (the so-called Champagne method).
Located in central Chile, just south of the capital city of Santiago, it stretches over 40km (25 miles), from the Pacific Ocean inland, along the lower reaches of the Maipo River.
To get to Maipo Valley, you’ll have to drive about 25 miles south from here. The car ride is just beautiful: the mountain road winds through evergreen forests and green valleys. Through a break in the trees you can see that it’s not part of the Andes, but rather a valley between mountain ranges that forms part of central Chile. The soils are mostly clay, which means they’re great for growing grapes—and since we are living in Chile, I know that Maipo Valley is actually one of the best places in the country to do so!
Maipo Valley is also known as El Valle de Maipo and El Valle de Codelco (in Spanish)!
At its narrowest, the valley is only 10km (6 miles) wide and at its widest 30km (19 miles).
At its narrowest, the valley is only 10km (6 miles) wide and at its widest 30km (19 miles). The Pacific Ocean to the west and mountains to the north and south limit the area.
The Maipo River runs through this middle portion of the valley. The Andes Mountains act as a barrier for cold winds from Patagonia, which allows for a Mediterranean climate.
As you travel upriver, you’ll come across villages such as Pirque, Paine and Puente Alto on your way to San José de Maipo where you can see “La Catedral” or “San Jose del Volcán” on one side of the road and “Quebrada del Durazno” on the other.
The Andes mountains rise to 3,300m/10,000 feet in places and form a natural barrier to chilly winds from the south.
The Andes Mountains run along the entire western coast of South America, creating a natural barrier between Chile and the Pacific Ocean. They’ve formed as two plates collide, pushing up sedimentary rock in their wake. The mountain range is more than 7,000 km long and contains more than half of the world’s glaciers, as well as some of the world’s longest mountain ranges. They dominate not only Chile’s geography but also its culture: mountains have been part of Chilean culture for centuries.
In between lie the peaks of San Jose and Mayacamas.
The San Jose is a mountain, not a vineyard. In the Berkshires, you will find no grapevines on Monument Mountain or Mount Greylock. The Mayacamas mountain range is also a landmark, but it separates the valleys of Napa and Sonoma and the cities that those grapes are named after: Saint Helena and Santa Rosa.
The latter once served as a landmark for ships entering into Valparaiso in days gone by.
The Mayacamas Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are to the west. They protect the vineyards from rain and help create a steady temperature during the growing season. This mountain range also serves as a geographical barrier between Napa Valley and Sonoma County in California to its north and Santa Cruz Mountains further south. It is interesting to note that prior to prohibition, there was a direct link between Napa Valley and Maipo by way of the railroad that ran through Beringer’s winery (yes, THAT Beringer). In fact it was this railroad access that made Concha y Toro possible in 1883—the year when it began exporting wine to Europe.
Beyond their role in creating a stable weather system for grapes, these mountains have other significance for Chileans. Long ago they served as landmarks for ships entering Valparaiso Harbor—the same harbor where wine from Maipo bound for Europe was loaded onto ships before prohibition ended its export run—and today they provide water for irrigation via the Maipo river that runs through the valley into Santiago (Chile’s capital city) some 51 miles away
Today it guards over vines in Concha y Toro’s flagship vineyard in Pirque, on its lower slopes.
Pirque is a village in the Maipo Valley, just south of Santiago. Concha y Toro’s flagship vineyard lies there, bearing its name. Pirque is one of the best sites in the Maipo Valley and indeed in Chile. It encompasses more than a thousand acres and guards over vines planted as early as 1883 on its lower slopes, making it one of the oldest vineyards in the world.
Some 250 years ago when this area was first planted with vines from Spain by Jesuit missionaries, it was one of Chile’s few wine regions.
Chile’s oldest wine region, Maipo Valley was the source of most of Chile’s early wines. The area was planted to vines from Spain by Jesuit missionaries around 250 years ago. At that time, it was one of Chile’s few wine regions. Over the next century or so, Chilean winemaking continued to grow and evolve in relative obscurity as other areas developed further south.
As new areas were developed near other major cities such as Valparaiso, Maule and Curico further south down the country, these became more important and Maipo was largely forgotten.
As new wine regions developed in areas further south down the country near major cities like Valparaiso, Maule and Curico, these became more important than Maipo. The vines in the valley were mostly neglected or uprooted and the area became a rich source of wood for the mining industry. Later on during this time, phylloxera wiped out many of Chile’s vineyards and only those planted on their own roots survived. These included some of the unknown Maipo vineyards which were replanted with French cuttings after phylloxera was finally eradicated in 1892. These are now referred to as ‘Pre-phylloxera’ vines by Chileans as they are extremely rare today due to most having been uprooted when Maipo was largely forgotten about again.