Lomas de Llahuen - Pipeño 2022

Gustavo Riffo and his family's Lomas de Llahuen winery are north of Portezuelo, a major center for Pipeño in the central Itata valley. Gustavo has been making wines from his family’s vines for over 10 years. His family has made wine here in this warm and dry area for generations. The family's wines (for which Gustavo is the winemaker) are bottled under the Lomas de Llahuen label; Gustavo also bottles wines under his own name from selected plots that he farms himself.  

Converting to organics was a struggle and a source of conflict with the family, but they started the process in 2005. At the same time, Gustavo began making his own wines from plots that he farmed on his own, where he works with biodynamic treatments. With these bottlings he is also able to be more experimental in the cellar, working with old amphoras and long skin contact for the Moscatel and lower sulfur quantities overall. 

Lomas de Llahuen is the name for wines made with the fruit from old vines in Portazuelo that have been in Gustavo Riffo’s family for many years. Gustavo has been making wines with his family’s grapes for more than 10 years, but this is a separate project from his personal wines bottled under his name.

100% País from the family's vines that are roughly 200 years old, densely planted on granitic clay-loam soils, and unirrigated. Winemaking is very traditional: the grapes were destemmed, macerated on their skins during a roughly 2-week fermentation in stainless steel, pressed, and then the wine rested in large Raulí vats for 12 months.

Producer: Lomas de Llahuen

Country: Chile

Region: Itata Valley

Varietal: País

Appellation: Itata Valley

Vintage: 2022

Size: 1L