2016 Alcance Vigno Old Vines Dry Farmed Carignan Maule Valley Chile 750 ml

For years, we listened patiently as our own Master Sommelier Sur Lucero waxed poetic about the Dry Farmed Carignan from Alcance that he tasted on his last trip to Chile’s Maule Valley, referring to it as “one of my absolute favorite Southern Hemisphere wines”—a significant endorsement from a Master Sommelier who typically shies away from superlatives. 

Our patience was a requirement, because Alcance refused to export any of this Carignan, its most prized old vine offering. 

Until today, that is. 

A saturated ruby-purple hue stains the glass as the wine’s explosive aromas freely ricochet off of it—ripe currant, blackberry, black cherry, and cracked pepper dazzle the senses while wildflowers, smoked game, and dried herbs emerge from the backdrop.

Savory, dense, and beautifully tactile, James Suckling called this special cuvée “a really complex Carignan,” in his glowing 94-point write up. Its fleshy palate is marked by earthy wild brush undertones as fine, grippy tannins crescendo toward a powerfully long, rich finish. 

For the money, few bottles capture a sense of place quite like this one. Alcance draws from two main estate plots, the El Malten Vineyard in the Andes foothills, and the San Francisco Vineyard in the region’s southwest, where quartz dots the arid soils. The climate here is desert-like, with only around 25 inches of rain falling in the winter. The soils are poor and dry—the perfect recipe for wines that showcase savory richness and elegant aromas.

To access that special terroir, Alcance’s dry-farmed Carignan draws from its 60- to 70-year-old vines—each grape bursting with concentrated intensity that results from decades of deep-diving for every drop of precious water. These dry-farmed vines are bush-trained, low-yielding, and capable of absorbing a great amount of abuse from Mother Nature.

This rare Carignan comes to us thanks to the efforts of a small group of vintners dedicated to protecting some of Chile’s most precious and characterful terroir. Founded in 1993, Alcance is one of several wineries that belong to Vigno, a group formed to preserve their one binding obsession: the old-vine, dry-farmed Carignan of Chile’s Maule Valley.  

Alcance winemaker Andrés Sánchez is the co-founder and president of the group, and is considered an expert at coaxing out everything these ancient vines have to offer. It was he who invited Sur down to Chile to experience this project first-hand, and it’s no coincidence that these wines have since become highly sought-after by savvy sommeliers.

Thanks to its impressive heritage and unique microclimate (and perhaps that inimitable quartz), this 2016 Carignan can stand tall next to the great Grenaches of the Rhône and Priorat. For all its complexity, it’s a lavish crowd-pleaser—this 94-point, Master Sommelier-approved bottle is a sure bet for any lover of great red wine.