Have you ever had wine from the Marga Marga Valley? What about wine fermented in leather? Or Cristal the grape? Then Herrera-Alvarado is your best choice to discover the Marga Marga.
Marga Marga-The Lost Valley
Whenever you go to and from the coast and Santiago, you have the choice of many wineries to visit in the Casablanca Valley along highway 68. However, when I googled wineries near Concon, which is a bit further north from the 68 and Valparaiso, the only winery that showed up was Herrera-Alvarado. So I googled “Herrera-Alvarado” and learned that it’s in the Marga Marga Valley, which doesn’t appear on any wine map of Chile. I was already intrigued and contacted co-owner Arturo Herrera immediately. After 3+ years in Chile, how could I not have tried a wine from this region yet?
Vinedos Herrera-Alvarado
Nestled in the Marga Marga Valley, north of Casablanca, south of Concon, and east of Vina del Mar in Quilpue, Vinedos Herrera-Alvarado is one of the few producers that actually sells its wines outside of the valley. Most of the production here is for self-consumption by locals. Compared to its neighbor Casablanca, which was a rather new invention of the late 20th century, wines have been made in the Marga Marga Valley since the 14th century. Yet, it’s virtually unknown to the world.
Marga Marga stretches south east from the border of Vina del Mar and Concon while staying north of Casablanca and south of Olmue from Quilpue to Colliguay.
In terms of terroir, it’s similar to the coastal parts of Casablanca and Leyda in that it gets a lot of influence from the ocean air, but it’s also buffered by a small forest on the other side to keep it cool. There’s also a lot of quartz and clay adding minerality to the wines.
To get Herrera-Alvarado, you need to drive through the bumpy and hilly streets of Quilpue to Fundo San Jorge, where Arturo led us further in on dirt roads to their little nook of a vineyard and cellar. You truly feel isolated from the rest of the world in this tiny estate just over the hill from Concon. Talk about social distancing. Entering this hidden vineyard is like going back in time to the 14th century too when you see the way they do their winemaking.
Viñedos Herrera-Alvarado
The couple/co-owners, Carolina Alvarado and Arturo Herrera, were friends from school. They both studied agriculture, not viticulture, but they ended up in the wine industry. They founded Herrera-Alvarado in 2003, first renting vineyards in the Marga Marga Valley, and learning from the local people about traditional winemaking in the region. The traditional practices are similar to what the huasos (countryside cowboys/farmers) of Maule use to make their Pais field blends, so they also use zarandas (wooden mats), tinajas (clay amphorae) and cement vats like them. However, one thing that most other traditional Chilean producers don’t use that they do is bull-skin leather containers for fermentation.
Carolina Alvarado explaining their use of bull-skin leather
They now own about 2 hectares and make 5,000-6,000 bottles under their own label, but they are also part of a co-op of about 5 families and produce wine with them. In addition, they host free wine classes and wine social tastings for locals to learn about traditional natural winemaking and to get them familiar with the style of natural wine after years of drinking commercial wines.
They are hardcore believers in natural wines, eschewing commercial wine production and commercial agriculture in general. If I mentioned other producers from other regions, Arturo was quick to roll his eyes and proclaim that their wines were truly natural and terroir driven, which is a platitude many wineries profess but don’t always live up to.
It is true that their wines are unique to the history and terroir of the Marga Marga and you taste that in the glass. You taste the terroir and varietal clearly in each bottle.
You also sense it in the ambiance of their vineyard. Rather than a fancy tasting room and cellar, they created their own little adobe style cellar digging a little cave out of the local clay soil. They don’t use any electricity. Everything is done by hand/feet. It shows their connection to the land and the history of winemaking in the region that they are trying to preserve, which was mostly lost to the big industries.
They also steer clear of the points system from critics, so you’ll rarely see their wines rated by the major wine journals. Rather, they’re just trying to preserve the Marga Marga traditions of winemaking and make wines to have with your family meals. So I’m not giving any of their wines a rating to keep with the spirit of the place.
Finding their Wines
Like with the revival of Pais (see my past article), a majority of their buyers are currently international, but they’re certainly one of the pioneers of the slowly growing natural wine movement in Chile. Besides visiting them, really the only place you can taste their wine is at the natural wine tasting events of Chanchos Deslenguados, who have been selling wines via Facebook in lieu of these events during the pandemic.
Their wines sell for around $29 outside of Chile, but they’re only 6,000 CLP (~$8) in Chile if you can find them. You can contact them via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vi%C3%B1edos-Herrera-Alvarado-710482469003806 or their Instagram to find their wines. In the US, try contacting their main exporter Jose Pastor Selections.
Tasting Notes
The 2019 Rojo Loco is one of their most popular cuvees. It’s a field blend of mostly Pais and other local grapes, much like Pipeno wines are a field blend of Pais and other local grapes down south in Maule and Itata. Their wine includes Moscatel Rosada and Cristal (Blanca Ovoide). Only about 44 hectares of Cristal exist in Chile and producers in the Maule are experimenting making espumante with Cristal, which would be confusing with Cristal, the champagne. Their Rojo Loco is aged in old used barrels. It has a rosé color. It’s zesty, spicy, minerally and slightly spritzy. A perfect summer wine.
Their 2019 Oro Negro is old-vine Pais fermented whole-cluster in bull-skins (although they call it “cuero de vaca” = cow-skin leather, it’s technically “cuero de buey” =bull/ox skin leather). It ages 15+ months in old barrels. Like all their wines, there’s no fining, filtering or sulfites added. There’s a lot of strawberry and chalky minerality. Rather tannic for a Pais. Maybe the lack of filtering gives it that chewiness.
Both of these wines are sourced from Colliguay, the eastern most part of the valley. Marga Marga stretches south east from the border of Vina del Mar and Concon while staying north of Casablanca and south of Olmue from Quilpue to Colliguay.
They were out of their Pinot Noir, which is also fermented in bull-skin and aged in old barrels like the Oro Negro, but I got to try a 2017 Pinot Noir Rosado (rosé), which may have been a co-op wine. I wasn’t sure since he was pulling out unlabeled bottles. Also very dominated by fresh zesty strawberries, some minerality, earth and a bit of funk.
They also shared one of their rare Carmeneres from the 2020 vintage. They only make one barrel of this. It has that typical herbal nose with an easy, simple but fresh palate of red fruit and soft tannins. I often prefer boutique versions of Carmenere because they are less dressed up by oak and show more fresh red fruit notes.
Their 2018 La Zaranda Sauvignon Blanc is destemmed and foot-pressed using a Zaranda (a wooden mat), the same that is used with a lot of traditional Pais wines in the Maule Valley. It’s fermented and aged in cement tanks. It has a savory herbal and floral nose with a light and tangy palate.
Nearby Attractions
Visiting Herrera-Alvarado makes a nice excursion from your stay on the coast in Valparaiso, Vina del Mar or Concon. You can also add it as the final winery you visit on your way to Vina del Mar or Concon after visiting other Casablanca wineries by driving through the Lo Orozco area of Casablanca towards Quilpué on route 50. There is also one other winery you can visit off route 50 in the Marga Marga Valley called Vina Los Perales, which is about 30 minutes south of Herrera-Alvarado. It’s a big 145-year-old estate with a church, parks, gardens and a museum. They do make a small production wine that you can buy and taste too. However, it seems that it’s mostly used as a site for weddings and other special events. La Campana National Park is also nearby if you want to do some hiking. You enter from Olmue.