Bodegas Tagua Tagua — The Bird, the Lake, and the Forgotten Grape

Beneath the vines of Bodegas Tagua Tagua lies an ancient lake bed. Deeper still, the bones of mammoths. This is where wine begins here, in deep, prehistoric time.

The village of San Vicente de Tagua Tagua takes its name from the Mapuche word for the coot, a water bird, doubled as indigenous tradition does to make it plural. Many coots. Endless wilderness. A raw land to tame.

In 1902, the Correa family arrived from Spain, bringing with them the winemaking knowledge of the Old World. They found indigenous soil that answered back with something ancient and alive: fierce Andean sun by day, cold mountain wind by night, a heat swing so dramatic it concentrates sugar and preserves freshness in the same breath. The grapes are given the intensity from the sun and silk from the wind.

On that ship to the New World were also seeds, hope for a long lost grape. Perhaps Faith did not let it extinct just yet. After the phylloxera epidemic of the 19th century, it survived quietly in Chile thanks to the Old World voyagers. In Bordeaux, it never fully ripened, very sharp and acidic. But under the Chilean sun and Andean winds Carménère finally found its new life in the New World, becoming what it was always meant to be: generous, dark, and complete.

Every sip of Bodegas Tagua Tagua’s wine is where the Spanish flare meets with the roaring nature of the Andes.

Available at Soul Wine.