Wine Making and Viticulture

Harvest 2011 by Maria Luz Marin

The vintage of 2011 has perhaps been the most complicated vintage I have lived since my first vintage in 2003. We started with a very cool spring with little sun, and a tremendous amount of frosts (more than 11). Despite having some frost control, the last frost was in December and because of a human mistake, it went wrong and destroyed some complete blocks.

The summer was sunny but with a few hours of heat and plenty of wind that cooled down the temperature. With as a result, when we came close to harvest, the grapes were still green. The grapes that were located in the middle of the blocks were ready, therefore we had to make a great effort to only harvest the grapes that were ready.

We are now in the first week of May and we are still harvesting our Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes are still hanging on the vines and the only thing that the vines want to do is just go to sleep and they do not want to keep working to finish their grapes. This is a serious challenge for us; growers and winemakers. This is the first time we had to harvest our Sauvignon Blanc so late in the season.
Along with the frost and cold season, we were attacked by birds as never before, even in those blocks where they never appeared before…and besides the frost and bird attacks we must add that the yield this year has been very low due to very small and light weighted bunches.

But this is how it is in the countryside, where nature tells us what to do… and we must learn to live with it. The good news is that the health and quality of the grapes is extremely good and therefore we expect some amazing 2011 vintage wines. You always have to look at the positive side of all this, the technical challenges that we are facing each year, in each harvest, is very rich, we learn from this, and if we did not have those challenge, and when the wines would be very similar year after year, wine making would be very boring!!!

Terroir Discovery

Mr Tieni du Preez is the new wine consultant who has contracted Casa Marin. Du Preez, South African origin, is a recognized and experienced wine specialist, with a master degree in soil and nutrition scientist and has been a consultant for many years in other prestigious national vineyards of Chile.

Mr Du Preez, who also is consultant of vineyards and orchards in Argentina and Peru, is a leading private consultant in South Africa and has a long history in this field.

Casa Marin received Mr. du Preez this weekend for the first time, with as main objective to give shape to the new project of Casa Marin called “Tierras Blancas”.

We shared with Mr Du Preez a very interesting day, with the new discovery of a very special soil that thousands of years ago was covered by the Pacific Ocean. We hope to have a very good and successful collaboration in the course of time with this major international professional, and that Casa Marin will be still known as “one of the most radical and innovative vineyards of Chile”

Terroir Discovery at Casa Marin

Come and visit Casa Marin and see those secrets with your own eyes. If you understand the terroir, you understand the wine. We offer a tour in the vineyard, “Terroir Discovery”, which start at the highest point of the vineyard with ocean view, during this walk we will see the different soils, layers of soils, and we also compare the different leaves of the various vines and taste the grapes of each block to see the difference between one and another! Write to hospitality@casamarin.cl for more information or to make a reservation!

What is the difference between Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris

Most of you did very well in the August poll, : “What is the difference between Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris?”The correct answer was “all of the above answers are correct.” Sauvignon Gris is a pink berry, has a thicker skin than Sauvignon Blanc, and is fuller-bodied.

In Chile there are just 3-4 vineyards which produce wines with 100% Sauvignon Gris. Sauvignon Gris is mostly used to blend with Sauvignon Blanc and add more complexity to the wine.

Our Sauvignon Gris Estero Vineyard is 100% Sauvignon Gris. In total we have 1.5 hectares of this special variety planted. In 2009 70 % of the wine was barrel fermented during 6-7 months in 500-liter French oak barrels. Sauvignon Gris is definitely one of our favorites!

Do you also know the answer to our September poll? “Which famous poet is buried in Cartagena?”

Download here the factsheet of Sauvignon Gris

Viña Casa Marin goes Green

As of the 25th of August of the present year, three members of Casa Marin, Sally Schloss, Felipe Marin and Osvaldo Marin, will be attending a Sustainability program offered by Innova Chile. This program will certify that Casa Marin will adopt sustainability practices current with world-wide standards.

Objective
The objective of the program is to create a code of sustainable practices at the national level and a system by which the wineries can be accredited. This will allow the vineyards to show their progress in the area of sustainability both nationally and internationally, as well as comply with the requirements of the Swedish market, be identified in other markets and serve as a management tool, allowing continuous improvement. In this way the wineries may retain their existing markets and create new opportunities in others, as well as secure a good position for Chile in the sustainable wine industry worldwide.

What is the Sustainability Program for Chilean wines about?
It represents a set of initiatives and projects whose focus is the implementation of sustainability practices in the Chilean wine industry. This program meets the innovation requirements determined by the Chilean industry, taking into account sustainability and the environment, social equity and economic viability. The program and the development of this project will be run by wine associations, a technical department of Vinos de Chile and five major Chilean universities.

What does this program includes?
It covers various projects comprehensively as well as the sustainability issue in greater depth . The program identifies the source of sustainability as a cornerstone for further specific projects and key areas.

Specific projects:

• Social Responsibility
• Network of weather stations for the wine valleys in Chile: a pioneer project established the 1st network of meteorological stations in all the wine valleys in Chile, beginning with an initial investment of 33 stations and subsequently adding third-party stations. This network can deliver online real-and basic information such as temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation and wind speed as well as process information such as degree days and the main bioclimatic indexes which can be used for the delineation of terroir climate.
• Energy Efficiency in the cellar, climate change and carbon footprint: This project establishes development processes in the warehouse in relation to energy use and provides recommendations for improvement in each stage of development.

During the program we will share with you the road we are taking to become a 100% sustainable vineyard. After every seminar we will post the new things we have learned about sustainability and the steps we have to take in order to obtain this certification!

The difference between Cipreses and Laurel Sauvignon Blanc

As many of you know, Casa Marin has two different styles of Sauvignon Blanc, Cipreses and Laurel. Many people who have tasted both wines have an interest in learning how it is possible to create two such different wines of the same variety in a vineyard of only 40 hectares. Well, here goes my explanation–sit down, enjoy and learn.

The first difference is the altitude. The Cipreses vineyard is located at a higher altitude than the Laurel one, and the vines in these two blocks are exposed to different soil types, orientations, temperatures and winds.

The second difference, as already mentioned, relates to the soil. Both have high concentrations of calcium carbonate but this concentration is predominant in the Cipreses block; the Cipreses soil is also of a poorer quality and less depth.

The third, last and most important difference between Laurel and Cipreses is the orientation. Most of the Cipreses block has an East-West orientation, which means that the cold wind coming from the Pacific Ocean, named the “Humboldt Stream,” penetrates through the corridors and in between the rows, cooling down the vines considerably, which causes the stomata in the leaves to shut down, slowing down the process of photosynthesis a bit. This causes stress in the vines, limiting their growth and energy and therefore fruit production, decreasing the yield per vine in a natural way. This allows the plant to produce grapes with a higher concentration of flavors and aromas which are present in the wine.

The Laurel block, on the other hand, has more of a northern-southern sun exposure, which means that the first row of vines stops the cool “Humboldt Stream” wind, and therefore acts as a shield to the rest of the vines located in the latter rows. This creates a warmer zone which leads to more vigorous canopy and fruit, as well as a greater equilibrium in vine maintenance. Additionally, we leave the grapes in the vine a little longer so that the sugar content at the moment of harvesting is higher in the Laurel than in the Cipreses block.

As a result, the Cipreses wine has more of a green herb and mint flavor, whereas the Laurel wine has more honeyed and tropical notes.

I hope this explanation helps clarify the difference between both wines. It is interesting to note that although the blocks are located very close to each other, the topography of the vineyard allows for the creation of two great but very different styles of Sauvignon Blanc and shows the special “terroir” we have in Lo Abarca. Please feel free to contact me if you have any more questions!

Harvest Report 2010

As a result of the cold year, the total production of Sauvignon Blanc in the San Antonio Valley decreased with approximately 25%. The frosts that took place in spring and autumn provoked an important production loss.

For Casa Marin 2010 ten was not an easy year. We lost approximately 6 hectares of production, and for a vineyard of 40 hectares only, this is a lot. Nevertheless, the quality of the grapes were amazing.

I wrote this report so you know exactly what the 2010 vintage of Casa Marin looks like, the impacts of the climate on the grapes and the main characteristics of the 2010 vintage wines. Please feel free to download the harvest report 2010 below. If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Download here: Casa Marin Harvest Report 2010

Frost protection

Vintage 2010, the lowest temperatures registered in history!

Casa Marin is running under chilling moment as freezing temperatures are becoming our main enemy, a real threat to our vineyards. We never realized that we could get such low temperatures for repeated days during the month of November just when vine shoots are about 10cm height. We lost 100 tons of grapes! Considering we only have 36 hectares is a big lost, it is the worst frost ever recorded in our vineyards and is definitely a problem that requires our attention for this coming season.

Our previous system was a little complicated and not very effective. With our old system, as soon as the temperature reaches two degrees, an alarm went off in the Casona. As a result, we had to get out of our beds and turn on all the gas heaters that are spread out in the vineyard.

For the new frost protection, we decided to use micro pulsators to protect the vines from frost, a technology that requires low inputs of water (2,5lt/seg/ha) which gives the advantage to use the same drip irrigation system that exist in the vineyard avoiding investments on pumps, wells or water reservoirs. The engineers could not believe that we get frost at 4 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean. The picture below shows the micro pulsators that they are using in Viña Santa Rita in the Casablanca Valley and which we are installing at the moment in our vineyard. We hope that with this system we can fight back against the frost during the 2011 vintage!