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Tim Atkin MW: Bolivian bounty

It’s a place unlike anywhere else in wine, remote and enchanting. Taking its name from the Spanish word ‘encinta’, or pregnant, it was where well-to-do ladies from Potosí, the location of what was then the largest silver mine in the world, came to give birth in the 16th century. Potosí was high and inhospitable; the Cinti Valley was sylvan by comparison.

Viticulture arrived in the 1560s with Spanish missionaries. No vines survive from that period, but you can still come across plants that are over 200 years old. Some are trained on wires, or grown as bush vines, but most are semi wild, curling their trunks and tendrils around three types of local tree: molle, chañar and algarrobo. It’s a symbiotic relationship, according to Mercedes Granier of Jardín Oculto. “The vine is in its natural environment. It feels more comfortable next to a tree.”

Farming such vineyards is demanding, partly because of rainfall during harvest. At Bodegas y Viñedos Yokich, the plots are chaotic, almost jungle-like. “The biodiversity is incredible,” says owner Patricia Mendoza. The best wines from the valley – other producers to look out for include Cepas de Oro, DGR Wines, San Francisco de la Horca and Valle Eterno – are made from so-called Patrimonial, or Criolla, varieties, many of which can also be found in Argentina, Chile and Peru: Albilla, Moscatel de Alejandría, Negra Criolla (Listán Prieto) and Vizchoqueña.

And yet the region no longer enjoys the importance it once did. The older generation – and the knowledge it has accumulated – is dying out. Today, there are just 300ha left, producing small amounts of very special wines. The Cinti Valley offers us the chance to look back into the past. Like Potosí, it should be declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Main regions

If Bolivian wine only came from the Cinti Valley, it would be a fascinating, if minor, curiosity. But the country has two other main regions: Samaipata near Santa Cruz de la Sierra in the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes and the much more extensive Tarija Valley. There are only two significant producers in the former – Landsuá and Uvairenda – but dozens in the latter. Neither place is as high as the Cinti Valley, but Samaipata is above 1,750m and parts of Tarija are at 2,100m.

Tarija accounts for 80% of Bolivia’s 4,600ha under vine, which is not bad for a region whose first serious winery – Kohlberg – opened its doors in 1963. Tannat, the valley’s signature variety, is even more recent. It was successfully planted in 1999 by Milton Castellanos of Aranjuez, although another clone had been tried before and failed in 1985. Today, Tannat is Bolivia’s most planted ‘international’ variety, with over 50 different labels on the market. Bolivian Tannat even has its own birthday, celebrated every year on 10 November by national decree.

There are plenty of other grapes in the ground. None is as well suited to the region as Tannat, but Italian Bonarda, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Marselan, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah and Viognier all have potential.

What about Bolivian wine in general? Does it too have promise? I think so. After 20 years of economic stagnation under the Movimiento al Socialismo’s Evo Morales and his successor Luis Arce – the former is in hiding, the latter in jail – Bolivia elected the centrist Rodrigo Paz last year and is “open for business”, as one bodega owner put it. Like its coffee and cacao, Bolivian wine deserves to be better known. At its best, it’s almost as good anything made in Argentina and Chile, Latin America’s two powerhouses. The top bodegas of the Cinti Valley and those of Tarija – Aranjuez, Campos de Solana, Casa de Relatos, Kohlberg, Tellus Wines and Tour des Étoiles – merit international recognition. For now, you have to go to Bolivia to drink their wines, but that’s no hardship, especially if you’ve had a bowl of sopa poderosa first.

Picture Credit: iStock.com 

• bolivia
• Cinti Valley
• Tarija Valley
• UNESCO World Heritage
• Samaipata
• promise
• open for business