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Appellation · Chile

Maule Valley

Chile’s largest wine region, and the home of very old dry-farmed bush-vine Carignan and País.

Valle del Maule DOmediterraneanmoderate
What to expect in the glass

Old-vine Carignan that is firm, high in acidity and savoury; País that is light, tart and rustic. Both quite unlike modern Chilean Cabernet.

About Maule Valley

Maule is Chile’s largest wine region by area and its oldest, with plantings going back to the sixteenth century.

Its interest now lies in what survived the modernisation of the 1990s: very old, dry-farmed, head-trained Carignan and País vines on the dry coastal range, which were nearly grubbed up as worthless.

The VIGNO association, formed in 2011, requires Carignan from dry-farmed vines at least thirty years old — one of very few producer-led quality designations in South America.

País, brought by Spanish missionaries, is the same variety as the Mission grape in California and Criolla Chica in Argentina.

What the name means

Legal name
Valle del Maule DO
Type
Geographical indication
Set by
Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero (SAG), Chile
Recognised
1995
Regulates
Origin only. It sets no rules about varieties, yields, ageing or winemaking.

A nationally registered indication of origin outside the systems enumerated above. What it controls varies by jurisdiction and is recorded on the individual record.

Grapes

Wines from here

red

Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon

Reliable, cassis-driven Cabernet with a distinctive mint or eucalyptus note — and consistently among the best value in the world.

red

País

Chile’s oldest variety, from century-old dry-farmed bush vines — pale, savoury and the centre of the country’s small-producer revival.

What to eat, and how to serve it

Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.

País

Serve at 13–15°C (cellar cool).

Try with fillet steak, turkey or bloomy-rind cheese.

Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon

Serve at 16–18°C (cool room temperature).

Try with roast chicken, fillet steak or grilled chicken.

Where to go next

Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.

  • Itata Valley — Chile’s oldest wine region, home to old-vine País and Cinsault on granite soils.
  • Colchagua Valley — A warm valley in the Rapel region, known for ripe Carmenère, Cabernet and Syrah.
Location

Approximate centroid: -35.60°, -71.70°. WineHQ stores coordinates only where it has them, and does not estimate boundaries it has not sourced.

Sources

Sources consulted