Viña VIK takes a holistic approach to its viticulture and winemaking, as winemaker Cristian Vallejo explains in this interview for our Terroir Talk series. From making his own amphorae from the clay in the vineyard and toasting his own barrels from the fallen oak in the forest, to custom-trimming each bunch of grapes at veraison, there’s no detail spared in this stunning vineyard and wine production in Millahue Chile.
Making microterroir wines from a macroterroir
With 327 hectares planted in very different sites in their 4,450-hectare estate, Cristian Vallejo explains that he gets a great range of expressions with each plot, which is why VIK has now developed three different red blends to express that – VIK, La Piu Belle and Milla Cala. “We have six valleys, so six main terroirs,” explained Cristian in our live interview over Instagram. “Our coastal breeze refreshes three of our valleys, which gives us this more linear style with beautiful fresh floral aromas and bright acidity. The other three are a bit more inland and are 1C warmer, and they give us more volume in mouth and a more New World style wine. And in all of them, we have different soils and altitudes! That’s the beautiful part of this terroir, this amazing complexity.”
Complex the wines are, but also ultimately approachable or ‘easy to read’ as Cristian likes to say: “I like to say they are easy to read because I always like to think of VIK as a book. Every glass is a chapter, every sip is a page! It’s a wine that tells you a story, that tells you about our passion and our terroir.” The wines do certainly speak of the microclimates and complex terroir of Millahue, but also about the attention to detail of VIK in their winemaking and viticulture.
A big vision built on small details
And that attention to detail is quite incredible. Take, for example, the green harvest. Not only does the team perform a green harvest to select the shoots and reduce the bunches to one grape bunch per cane, but also to select the berries on the individual bunch that will be allowed to ripen! “Cabernet Franc for us is really important in our blends – it helps a lot with elegant tannins, the tension and the minerality in the flavour,” explains Cristian. “So in our green harvest of Cabernet Franc, we cut the shoulders and the tail of the bunch off in order to concentrate the flavour in the middle of the bunch.” I don’t know any other winery that goes to this level of detail, but it is painstaking work to top and tail each bunch of Cabernet Franc, as well as their Carmenère and Syrah. The result is much more balanced and equally ripened fruit.
A similarly detailed approach is taken in winemaking. The blending of each wine takes months of selecting the best plots, parcels and barrels, in order to get the optimum expression of their valley. But Cristian’s approach to winemaking has gone one step further… “I wanted to work out how we can make everything coming from us, and realised that the barrels are the only real thing from outside of VIK. And micro-oxygenation for me is really important in winemaking, to make the tannins soft. And so I wanted to get that micro-oxygenation from the estate, from VIK, and so I thought of making clay amphoras with our own clay!” Today VIK has an amphora-maker on hand who makes their own fermentation vessels from the clay in the vineyard. Not only do they make their own amphoras for fermentation, but the barrels that they do use (with French oak) are toasted with their own native oak from fallen trees in the estate’s forest and made by their own in-house cooper.
The attention to detail here at VIK is incredibly impressive and all echoes their focus on being a ‘holistic’ winery. “Holism is a concept from Aristotle that the whole is greater than the sum of each part, and this is the whole for us – our wine,” finished Cristian. “Our wine is made with a holistic approach, and we take care of every detail.”
You can listen to the fascinating full interview with VIK winemaker Cristian Vallejo in the video link below:
Video interview with Cristian Vallejo winemaker at Viña VIK
Wine tasting notes Viña VIK
La Piu Belle 2017
This sumptuous blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère and Syrah comes from the three warmer valleys of VIK and creates what Cristian describes as a ‘New World expression’ of these varieties. Filled to the brim with inviting fruit and floral notes and underpinned with the spiciness of Carmenère, it’s a smooth, opulent and juicy wine. The stunning bottle design is by Japanese artist Takeo Hanazawa who designed one of the rooms of the gorgeous VIK hotel and handpainted a magnum of wine, which the owners Alexandre and Carrie Vik decided to use as their label.
- Winemaker: Cristian Vallejo
- Vintage: 2017
- Grape Varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon 56%, Carmenère 35%, Syrah 9%
- Alcohol: 14%
- Winemaking: Native yeast ferment. Aged in French barrels 23 months. Unfined, unfiltered.
VIK 2014
Part of the newer chapter of VIK, in that this only has three varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Carmenère, in the blend. This is a savoury, complex and rather elegant blend which stacks layers upon layers of spice, earthy and fragrant dark forest fruit aromas. With a fine tannin, tension and a long, concentrated finish, this is a wine that will age well for decades to come.
- Winemaker: Cristian Vallejo
- Vintage: 2014
- Grape Varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Carmenère
- Alcohol: 14%
- Winemaking: Native yeast ferment. Aged in French barrels 23 months. Unfined, unfiltered.
