A Los Viñateros Bravos Granitico Cinsault 2022

This red checks every box for us – conscientious farming (organic, biodynamic), low intervention – not a lot of makeup, natural but not natty, small production, chillable and wildly delicious. Hailing from the Itata Valley of Chile, Bravos Granitico Cinsault will remind you of an elegant, mineral-driven Pinot Noir.

Leo Erazo’s Los Viñateros Bravos and his eponymous label wines come from the Guarilihue area of Chile’s Itata Valley, the first settlement of Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th century who brought their own vines. Dominated by ancient pink/orange granite dating from the Cretaceous period and younger volcanic soils, the minimalist and naturalist, Leonardo Erazo, practices organic, biodynamic, and dry farming with the own-rooted, ancient 150-300-year-old País bush vines. All the wines are vinified with spontaneous fermentations in concrete (eggs, spheres, and more), amphoras, large wood vats and food-grade polymer containers, and they’re pressed in a vertical, wooden press.

Granitico Cinsault comes from 2ha of Cinsault with an average vine age of 70 years (2023) on a steep slope facing east to the morning sun at 250m on granite bedrock and 60cm of clay topsoil derived from the underlying bedrock.