If you’re looking for a surprising bottle from an exotic location to bring to your next wine geeky blind tasting, this new producer from Chile is a sure bet.
Wines of Northern Chile
More wine producers from Northern Chile are starting to pop up. Although this is a general trend throughout Chile, the amount of producers from the North of Chile that are available in the national and international market are still slim.
A lot of Northern Chile produces grapes for table grapes, traditional sweet wines and Pisco rather than dry wines of high quality, but that’s changing. Tabali, from the Limari Valley, is probably the most famous producer from the north. Likewise, Alcohuaz is the top producer from the Elqui Valley. Most of the rest are smaller, emerging boutique wineries. There are also interesting projects even further north in the Tarapaca region.
JP Martin & the Huasco Valley
At the southern part of the Atacama desert is the Huasco Valley. Here, you used to only find the traditional sweet wine, Pajarete, and Pisco. Then Ventisquero started making their Tara line, which was the only option you would find from the Atacama in the larger marketplace. Now, there’s also Buena Esperanza and Kunza in addition to JP Martin, who came on the scene about 2 years ago with 2021 being his first vintage to be released.
JP Martin is the personal project of winemaker José Pablo Martin Vergara, who has over 20 years of experience in the wine industry. This is his first personal wine to go to market though.
JP Martin is already one of the new darlings of Chilean wine geeks and wine critics. His Garnacha, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are sourced from the Huasco Valley while his Rumay series Carmenere, Syrah and Pedro Jimenez are from the Limari Valley. All the wines except the Pedro Jimenez age in some type of oak vessel but for the most part are all used, rather neutral oak.
I found a bottle of his to review for this post.
Tasting Notes
2021 JP Martin De Cal Garnacha Huasco
100% Garnacha planted in 2018 about 36 km from the ocean at 375 m above sea level. Some whole clusters are used. They use only 5th or more used French oak for aging. The color is super light but cloudy since it’s unfiltered. The nose is bright, floral with clay, chalk and natural, native yeast notes. The palate is fruity: lots of strawberry but with a tangy finish. Light-body but intense. It’s a little warm at 13.5% alcohol but overall this reminds me of Garnacha from Madrid which lean towards Pinot in style rather than the super dark and fuller versions from the north west of Spain or the southern Rhone. 92
JP Martin’s wines are priced in between the more expensive Ventisquero Tara wines and the much cheaper Kunza and Buena Esperanza wines. The issue will be finding any of the later three outside of Chile. I believe JP Martin has already started exporting a bit to the Northern Hemisphere, but production and distribution are still relatively small. Less than 2,000 cases were made in total of his 2022 vintage wines.
If you’re a wine geek or wine importer looking for the next thing in Chile, this is it. However, don’t expect this to be in the style of big Chilean Bordeaux blends like Purple Angel, Vik or Clos Apalta. This is for wine geeks who want a small production, well-made but low intervention wine from one of the most beautiful, isolated deserts in the world.
I’ll be in California for the next month, so I won’t be posting. Hopefully, I’ll find some hidden gems for future posts while I’m there.