País
Chile's historic mass-production red, brought by Spanish missionaries in the sixteenth century; the same variety as California's mission grape.
About the grape
País (the name means 'country' in Spanish) is a prolific variety in Chile, where it is the source of common, undistinguished table wine and is still widely planted for jug wines. It is Chile's historic mass-production grape, brought from Spain in the sixteenth century. Originally known as criolla chica, país is the same grape as California's mission; in the mid-2000s DNA typing revealed both país and mission to be the Spanish variety listán prieto, carried to Mexico, Argentina and Chile in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Spanish conquistadores and missionaries.
Where it grows
Maule
