Macatho "Toca Tierra" Itata Valley, Chile 2021

FROM JOSÉ PASTOR:

THE WINE: Toca Tierra is made from centenarian pie franco País grown in the Itata Valley on granite clay soils. The grapes are hand-harvested in early April and cooled overnight, de-stemmed and spontaneously fermented in stainless steel with 69 days on skins, then raised in the same vessels for 6 months.

THE PRODUCER: Agrícola Macatho is the winery project of Macarena del Río and Thomas Payrare, who started making wine together in 2016 near their home in Chillán in Chile’s Itata Valley. A life in wine was never really a question for Macarena, and her studies in France led her to an internship at Château Cheval Blanc in Saint-Émilion in 2011 (who hired her partially out of admiration for her audacity: she rode right up to the château on her bike and asked for a position), then consulted with wineries in the south (notably natural wine luminaries Domaine Léonine in Rousillon in 2013) and worked harvest with Yvon Métras in Beaujolais, Patrick Bouju of Domaine La Bohème in Auvergne, and Jean-Christophe Comor of Domaine Les Terres Promises in 2015. Thomas caught an interest in wine from his roommate Louis-Antoine and worked harvests at his projects in Chile while starting his own graphic design business. Back in France, he also worked a harvest at Domaine Les Terres Promises. Maca and Thomas met during one of these harvests and it wasn’t long before their own project Macatho was born in 2016. Inspired by Luyt’s model of working with small local growers, they rented a little cellar outside Chillán and started reaching out to, then working with, farmers in the Maule and Itata valleys. By paying fair prices for grapes (in a market that deeply undervalues them) and working with these families in their fields, they’re able to encourage their partner growers towards organic and regenerative farming.