JamesSuckling Interviews: Andrea Leon

JamesSuckling Interviews options modern and influential vineyard homeowners, winemakers and business notables representing the brand new era that’s shaping tastes, traits and methods within the better wine world. 

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Andrea Leon, the technical director and winemaker on the Lapostolle and Clos Apalta wineries within the Apalta subregion of Chile’s Colchagua Valley, brings a mixture of science and artistry to all points of her roles since becoming a member of Lapostolle as an assistant winemaker in 2004. Based in 1994 by Grand Marnier heiress Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle and her husband, Cyril de Bournet, Lapostolle’s intrepid concentrate on their single high-elevation web site, Clos Apalta, and its century-old pre-phylloxera cabernet vines finally led to wines that put Lapostolle and the Apalta subregion itself on the premium winemaking map.

Initially working with advisor Michel Rolland, Leon introduced an eye fixed for adaptation and innovation to her native nation after early-career work in France, Italy, the US and New Zealand. For the final 20 years, she has been integral to the institution of Lapostolle and Clos Apalta, alongside present CEO Charles de Bournet, as Chile’s chief in collectible, terroir-driven wines, and she or he has additionally been a trailblazer in discovering new varieties, particularly from the Rhone, and in elevating Chilean wines on the worldwide market. JamesSuckling.com earlier this 12 months gave 100-point scores to their Clos Apalta Valle de Apalta 2021 and Clos du Lican Apalta 2021 wines, and their choices usually make our annual Prime 100 Wines of Chile and Prime 100 World Wines lists.

JamesSuckling.com’s Susan Kostrzewa lately talked with Leon concerning the uncommon high quality and character of the Apalta subregion, why Apalta’s varietal syrah and viognier wines are those to look at, the significance of preserving Maule’s outdated vines and the way Chile can break away from its “low cost and cheerful” wine persona worldwide.

Congratulations in your latest 100-point scores on the 2021 Clos Apalta and the 2021 Clos du Lican. What was your response to the scores, representing among the highest scores of Chilean wine available on the market?

It’s an honor as 2021 wasn’t a simple classic for a lot of causes, together with years of Covid. It exhibits the consistency of Clos Apalta throughout a really memorable and difficult classic. The staff was tremendous excited and we had been very grateful and humbled, however completely happy and proud as nicely. It’s additionally an important duty. There’s not a lot room for errors. There’s lots of precision wanted, and there are lots of new challenges you must face, with the intention to preserve consistency and this sort of high quality in a world that may be very a lot altering. But it surely was an attractive second.

Are you able to discuss what makes Apalta so distinctive so far as terroir and microclimate?

It’s a really peculiar little nook of the broader Colchagua Valley and was acknowledged as a separate Designation of Origin in 2018. On paper, it’s fairly younger, however there are outdated cabernet and carmenere vines relationship again to 1907 right here. So there’s a protracted custom of vine rising and winemaking within the space. Apalta in Spanish means “poor soil,” or “dangerous place.” It’s a granitic soil, nicely decomposed of colluvial origin. Apalta has a southern publicity, which is kind of uncommon, and is surrounded by hills that run east to west. So it’s type of a closed amphitheater with a river chopping by it within the south. It consists of lots of little pockets nestled between greater than 800 hectares of untamed forest with a river, so that you even have some alluvial soils on the backside of the valley. This creates a fancy terroir that lets you plant many various grape varieties. We’ve got greater than 16 wine varieties right here between our two estates, starting from semillon all the way in which to cabernet sauvignon and together with cinsault, grenache, mourvedre, carmenere, petit verdot and so forth. We’ve got greater than 16 kinds of soil, and elevations range from 200 to 400 meters above sea degree. We’ve got very steep hillside vineyards and really low-valley-floor, old-vine vineyards. It’s various however fairly difficult.

You’ve been dedicated to sustainable and environmental stewardship all through your winemaking profession, with a level in environmental biology. Why do you assume this strategy is so necessary and what are your sustainability plans for the longer term?

Charles de Bournet’s mom, Alexandra, was very dedicated to us being natural early on, from 2011. After which got here biodynamic. Right this moment, we’re natural however not licensed biodynamic any longer as we moved towards a extra holistic view. At one level we had greater than 400 hectares of biodynamic-certified vineyards, however we felt that there have been sure practices that we would have liked to adapt to, so far as what Chile is and what the realities of a producer are. We’ve got a extra of a scientific strategy in sure issues. I feel it’s crucial to see the property as a farm and to include totally different parts and recycle every part; to have an in depth, self-nourishing system. We additionally built-in the sustainable code from Wines of Chile so as to add the social aspect of sustainability concerning the communities that encompass us.

Are you able to discuss concerning the environmental adjustments you’re experiencing and the way you’re dealing with them?

Central Chile, our predominant space for agriculture, is drying out. After I arrived within the space, there have been 800 millimeters of rain a 12 months on common; at present we’re roughly hitting 600. Temperatures and irradiation are climbing. We’ve got a lot much less steady circumstances.

Our climate adjustments loads between El Niño and La Niña swings, with climatic phenomenon like atmospheric rivers – which convey a number of rain in the midst of the summer season like in 2021 – and extremely popular and dry seasons adopted by a lot cooler temperatures. The problem is to be within the winery and browse the adjustments as quickly as you may.

It’s nice to make use of instruments to research knowledge by way of local weather, of temperatures, of the soil and of the roots, however it is advisable to be within the winery and see what is going on; it is advisable to have an important staff. In order that has pressured us to look block after block. You study each little pocket of the winery and handle it otherwise yearly. We’re pushing the vines to be self-sufficient and to endure these new circumstances. It’s additionally necessary to recollect what occurred up to now to make your finest wager for the longer term, and to take heed to older individuals who skilled loads within the vineyards. The outdated recipe of viticulture is gone, particularly in a terroir as complicated and wealthy as Apalta.

In your wineaking model, are you able to discuss any evolution in strategy over time towards extra minimal intervention or a extra direct and clear reflection of your distinctive terroir?

The Marnier-Lapostolle household has all the time been centered on making one hundred pc terroir-driven wines, however there’s a pure evolution after 30 years of studying and of trial, error and successes, and we naturally transfer towards approaches that categorical the terroir in a really sincere and exact means. When it comes to model: much less extraction, very lengthy pores and skin contact within the tanks that we adapt to the range or to the classic circumstances, rather less oak in Clos Apalta, much less new oak as nicely.  That is additionally due to the management of Charles and his imaginative and prescient, however it’s been a really pure course of. Any adjustments we’re doing are fairly delicate. We even have these newer hillside vineyards which weren’t right here 30 years in the past and introduced a spicier profile. These vineyards ripen earlier, so we harvest them just a little bit earlier as nicely. And that introduced one other dimension to the wine, naturally.

What impressed your Clos du Lican single-vineyard syrah mission?

I really like the Rhone/Mediterranean varietals. They’re an important match for the circumstances we’ve got in Apalta. Charles’ mom planted 10 hectares of syrah on a steep hillside. It was a loopy mission and no person may consider what she completed. It was all the time a part of the blends of Lapostolle, specifically the cuvees. When Charles got here on board, seeing the potential of the terroir, we thought we must always do one thing particular with it. And that’s once we began doing trials and micro-winemaking of all these totally different parcels of syrah. The complexity of the [Clos du Lican] wine comes from the expression of these totally different parcels which are on a giant cliff, on the sting of an attractive forest of native bushes. That positively provides it a giant character and we play with the totally different expressions of those parcels. Our first classic launch was in 2019, after fairly a number of years of trials. Together with syrah, after all, got here different nice varieties from the Rhone: grenache, mourvedre and viognier.

Let’s discuss concerning the Clos du Lican Apalta Côte de Madame viognier. Why viognier over chardonnay?

I make largely reds, however I really like rosé and white. That’s what I usually drink as nicely at house. We’ve got two little parcels of viognier. They’re on the high of the winery, on the cooler aspect. It was an important problem because it’s a troublesome selection to work with, however we did the identical trials [as the syrah], studying 12 months after 12 months and launching it in 2021. It’s a small manufacturing coming from a tiny winery with two very totally different exposures and circumstances. We do two harvests that do very various things to create this stunning complexity. It’s too scorching right here for chardonnay so viognier was the way in which to go.

What’s the potential of Maule, particularly for carignan, and what makes it particular as regards the advantage of outdated vines there?

As a vineyard we’ve been dedicated to outdated vines usually and to appellations with an eye fixed to the longer term. We’re a part of an affiliation of wineries, Vigno, that promotes old-vine carignan in Maule in southern Chile. So far as Vigno pointers go, the vineyards must be dry farmed, over 60 years outdated and the wine must be 85 p.c carignan. It must be aged for 2 years earlier than reaching the market. There are a complete algorithm for the label which transcend the geographical divisions that Chilean appellations usually use. Vigno needed to go additional and certify these vineyards. Right this moment, the value of the grapes has elevated persistently due to the standard of the wines. It’s a collective mission with fairly a number of massive and small wineries and it retains these outdated vines alive, taken care of and producing as a result of the growers get a very good value because of the wine high quality and ensuing press. We make a really small quantity of carignan from a winery on the coastal aspect of Maule that has a recent, gentle, ethereal expression. We’ve labored with two growers on a long-term foundation with the intention to protect these vineyards that might in any other case, due to regular economics, not nonetheless be in existence in southern Chile.

FROM THE VAULT: LEGENDS OF CHILE

You had been initially cultivating grapes in northern Chile however determined to tug again. Why?

We used to have vineyards in Casablanca and in Requinoa. In Casablanca, we primarily determined to tug again due to a scarcity of water and [issues with] animal pests. It was actually stunning winery however extraordinarily difficult. It was additionally the time once we cut up from Lapostolle and wanted to focus right here in Apalta, to observe what the French household imaginative and prescient was and what the French do, by way of turning into hyper-focused in a single space.  I used to be mentioning all the brand new challenges we’re having due to local weather change and so on.; if I used to be spending half of my time or our staff half of their time driving between vineyards, it might have been way more sophisticated.

One of many key selections the household had revamped these final 10 years is to concentrate on Apalta. Right this moment, it’s a D.O with superb however complicated terroir. It’s essential have your staff on web site. We’ve got seen how that basically adjustments the sport and this that’s why in France, the chateaux are in a single appellation to get probably the most out of it.

What do you consider is the way forward for Chilean wine as a class as gross sales decline, and what would you contemplate to be the largest challenges for Chilean wines proper now within the international market? Is the commodity market over and do you consider property wines are the longer term?

Property wines are the longer term. I feel that particularly for a rustic like Chile, with all its range, it’s positively about wines which are terroir-driven, quality-driven. I feel we have to concentrate on our appellations and make them simpler for the wine lover to grasp, somewhat than them simply associating us with tons of nice cabernet sauvignon. We’ve been identified to make low cost and cheerful wines which are nice worth and are very dependable. However we have to transfer up the ladder and we have to discuss our land, our individuals, our territories, our stunning pure world and our stunning wines by way of range, high quality, terroir. Now, if you go to a restaurant, you open a wine listing and also you see Bordeaux, you see Rhone, and so on. however Chile continues to be “Chile.” There’s such a tremendous range distinction between a cabernet sauvignon from Maipo, from Puente Alto, from Apalta. Chile is a rustic nice at making commodities, however we have to transfer away from that.

As wine consumption worldwide declines, the business is contemplating methods it may higher entice and retain prospects, particularly among the many youthful generations. What are your emotions about how not solely Apalta, Colchagua and Chile can do a greater job of attracting new customers, however how the wine world on the entire might be smarter in doing this?

I don’t assume in two years the world will cease ingesting wine. I don’t assume that our prospects who purchase positive wine, purchase quality-driven wine, purchase wines which are a part of a terroir and have a cultural aspect to them have disappeared. I feel we have to type of trip the wave of the present circumstances and see. As for the youthful era, they wish to know what they’re consuming, what they’re ingesting, the place it comes from, if it’s a authentic product, if it’s an sincere product, if it’s true to its nature, and what does it convey into the world? And in that sense, sustainability is essential. We’ll concentrate on high quality. We’ll focus hopefully on property wines – discuss concerning the wines, be clearer concerning the appellations, about how the wine is made, the place it comes from, the way it tastes, and make it less complicated. The wine business shouldn’t be a short-term turnaround. We must be affected person. Hopefully, if we’re going to drink much less wine, will probably be a a lot better-quality wine.

– Susan Kostrzewa