The El Niño phenomena has unleashed heavy rainfall in Chile, with severe flooding impacting some of the wine regions of Maule, Curico, Colchagua and Itata. Many vineyards on the valley floor have been completely flooded and several winery buildings have suffered damage.

One of the worst affected is the small family winery of Viña Gonzalez Bastias in Maule, which was completely destroyed by the floods. “It is like a tsunami has hit us,” owner Daniela Lorenzo told The South America Wine Guide, adding that the roof and some of the adobe walls have collapsed.

“We have had extreme damage with the complete loss of our winery.” Although the 200-year-old vines remain flooded, the family is hopeful that they will recover. “The vines were completely submerged in water for two days, so we will see how they respond as they are at bud burst.”

The damage to the winery, however, is long term and will require rebuilding. Owners Daniela and José Luis are putting together a GoFundMe campaign to help recover some of their losses. (Donations are welcome to Jose Luis Gomez Bastias account; 1661488910; RUT 13.354.973-0; [email protected])

Up to 350 mm of rain fell in some regions between the 18th and 22nd August, which is more than the average rainfall for the entire year in Santiago. Although heavy rains are expected in El Niño years, the ferocity of the flooding is due to the warmer temperatures because of climate change. Instead of falling as snow in the mountains, the deluge fell as rain which brought significant sedimentary material from the Andes and caused significant damage in its path bursting riverbanks and displacing over 25,000 people from their homes. Four people have also died as a result of the floods.

Winemakers are, however, optimistic that most of the vineyards will withstand the floods as the large majority of the regions impacted have well-established, mature vines. The greatest concern in viticulture is the damage that has been done to the infrastructure of the vineyards, with irrigation lines, electricity and frost protection damaged.

“The humidity is not a problem for most of the vineyards as they are just before or at budbreak,” explains Miguel Torres winemaker Eduardo Jordan. “The risk right now is that we have a strong frost predicted for this weekend and the week coming, and we don’t have the infrastructure to fight it.”

The lack of snow in the Andes mountains this year also means that Chile’s wine regions, as well as those of Argentina, still have a large deficit of water and drought is an ongoing and grave concern.

 

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