Maipo Valley
Maipo is Chile's historic premium red region, just south of Santiago and within sight of the Andes. Alto Maipo and Puente Alto on the eastern side, against the Andean foothills, produce Chile's flagship Cabernet Sauvignon — minty, structured, with fine-grained tannin. Phylloxera has never reached Chile, so most vines are own-rooted, sometimes propagated from cuttings well over a century old.
Signature grapes
Defining styles
Famous appellations
- Alto Maipo
- Puente Alto
History
Spanish missionaries planted vines in the 16th century. Wealthy 19th-century landowners imported Bordeaux varieties and French winemaking expertise; Concha y Toro was founded in 1883. The 1990s saw modernization and the rise of icon wines (Almaviva, Don Melchor, Seña). Carmenère, long misidentified as Merlot, was correctly identified in Chilean vineyards in 1994.