Maule
The southernmost of the Valle Central's five sub-valleys, on granitic hillside soils — historically the heartland of Chile's old país vines.
About the region
Maule is one of the five distinct sub-valleys of the Valle Central, alongside Maipo, Cachapoal, Colchagua and Curicó, many of them separated by rivers that begin high in the Andes and flow to the Pacific. As throughout the Valle Central, the top wine grapes grow not in the deep, fertile centre of the valley — where wheat, corn, beans, nuts, fruits and sugar beets flourish — but in the less fertile, well-drained granitic soils that hug the hillsides. Maule is closely associated with país, Chile's historic mass-production grape: brought from Spain in the sixteenth century as listán prieto and originally called criolla chica, it became so common by the nineteenth century that it was rechristened simply país ('country'), and it is still widely planted for jug wines. Approximately fifteen varieties of wine grapes are grown in Chile, but most wines are based on just five: cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, merlot, sauvignon blanc and carmenère.
Grapes grown here
Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Merlot, País