It's been quite a while now that we've been looking for South American wines but not just any wine, we wanted something that would be groundbreaking so when the opportunity to work with Cacique Maravilla (aka "Magnificent Chief") came about we didn't doubt it for a second.

Manuel Moraga and his family live just outside of Yumbel in the Bio Bio River Valley of Chile. They are the seventh generation to look after their 80 hectare farm, 16 of which under vine. The rest of their land has been dedicated to horticulture, forest, and animals...lots of animals. Horses, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, and lastly their two dogs Pipo and Pepa. Manuel took over the estate when his father passed away in 2009 and in his first vintage an earthquake completely ruined the winery. He still managed to make wine that year with practically no means at all. Content with the outcome of that first year, he realized not much was needed to make wine and this has been their philosophy ever since.

All of their vines are dry farmed and pertain to the Secano Interior de Yumbel D.O. characterized by its soils of trumao, volcanic sand formed by redeposited ash. Their vineyard was the 33rd registered vineyard in the history of Chile which speaks for just how old these vines are. Actually, you'll find the number 33 on all of their corks paying homage to their ancestors. The oldest vines are without a doubt the país (listan prieto) vines, some of which over 250 years old and accounting for more than half of their total production. The other half comprised of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Moscatel, Corinto and Torrontel. In the winery all of the work is done manually meaning no destemmer, only zaranda (traditional bamboo screen); no presses, only free run juice; no pumps, only gravity. In addition, the wines are made naturally without using any type of oenological products, including sulphur. I guess you could say they're natural wines made manually which isn't always the case these days ;)