Cachapoal is one of the five distinct sub-valleys within Chile's Valle Central, alongside Maipo, Colchagua, Curicó and Maule.
Wine label readers should note that the Cachapoal and Colchagua valleys are sometimes referred to together as the Rapel Valley.
As elsewhere in the Valle Central, the top vineyards sit on well-drained, friable granitic soils that hug the hillsides rather than in the deep, fertile centre of the valley, and on the eastern side, below the Andes, many vineyards lie on alluvial fans — rocky streambeds washed down the mountainsides by the force of water.
Andean snowmelt, channelled through a system of dikes and canals, provides the region's irrigation.