Viña La Rosa, 2021 Cornellana Volcano Sedimentario Cabernet Franc, Peumo, Cachapoal Valley, Chile
Cab Franc du Jour #146
Viña La Rosa holds the distinction of being Chile’s oldest winery, established in 1824 by Francisco Ignacio Ossa y Mercado, the grandson of a Basque-born mining entrepreneur from northern Chile. Drawn to the natural beauty of the Cachapoal region, Francisco purchased a farm and vineyards from Chile’s first president, Manuel Blanco Encalada. Two hundred years later, the sixth generation of the Ossa family leads the estate with the same passion for the land that inspired its founder. That connection to place is central to everything the winery represents today: a 100% estate producer farming an impressive 600 hectares of certified organic and sustainably farmed vines across three estates in Peumo. In the cellar, the team is led by head winemaker Gonzalo Cárcamo, who has been with La Rosa since 1998, supported by winemaker Cynthia Ortiz Vidal.
Cabernet Franc occupies a special place at Viña La Rosa. The estate farms 53 hectares of the variety, which may sound modest in the context of a 600-hectare operation, but it represents fully one third of all Cabernet Franc planted in the Cachapoal Valley. From these 53 hectares, the team produces six single-varietal Cabernet Francs from across their various terroirs, and the grape plays an important role in the estate’s flagship blend as well. Alongside Carmenère, it is one of the two flagship varieties across their top single-vineyard ranges, including La Rosa, La Capitana, and the newest addition, the Cornellana Volcano Sedimentario project.
The Cachapoal Valley
Viña La Rosa and its vineyards are located in the Peumo DO within the Cachapoal Valley, one of five regions that make up Chile’s Central Valley. The Cachapoal encompasses the northern portion of the larger Rapel River valley, bordered to the north by Maipo and to the south by Colchagua.
As is the case across Chile broadly, proximity to the Pacific Ocean to the west or the Andes to the east often has more influence on a region’s climate than latitude alone. This is why the designations Costa, Entre Cordilleras, and Andes are commonly used to signal both origin and growing conditions. The Cachapoal Valley follows a U-shape along the Cachapoal River, bounded to the west by the Coastal Mountain Range and to the east by the Andes, making it the only region in Chile’s Central Valley with no vineyards in the Costa zone. All sub-regions here fall under the Entre Cordilleras or Andes designations, with vineyard elevations ranging from around 150m above sea level to upwards of 950m.
The valley’s climate is broadly Mediterranean, with warm to hot summers, mild winters, and low rainfall. Its more north-south orientation along the Cachapoal River allows Andean breezes to funnel more readily into the valley, giving it a slightly cooler overall character than Colchagua to the south. The coolest zones are found at the eastern and western extremities of the valley, where vineyards sit in the foothills rather than on the warmer valley floor.
Soils across the valley shift significantly with topography. On the valley floor, richer alluvial silt-loams and clay loams predominate, while the foothills offer a more complex patchwork: granitic sands and gravels in the Andean zones, and stony, shallow sands, silts, and clays of volcanic or granitic origin in the coastal foothills.
Peumo DO
Peumo is arguably one of Chile’s best-known sub-regions, with Carmenère as its calling card, accounting for more than 50% of the area under vine. But as La Rosa’s work with Cabernet Franc demonstrates, the variety has adapted remarkably well here too. Located in the western part of the Cachapoal Valley, Peumo sits about 151km south of Santiago and 65km east of the Pacific Ocean, in the foothills of the Coastal Mountain Range at an average elevation of 250 to 300m above sea level. That elevation brings a wider diurnal range, with cooler nights tempering the warmer daytime temperatures.
The sub-region’s position on the north side of the Cachapoal River, just where it begins its north-south turn, means it is open to both coastal afternoon breezes and cooling Andean influences, moderating conditions and extending the growing season. The soils are diverse and complex, combining colluvium of volcanic origin with shallower silts and clays, also volcanic, offering a balanced mix of water retention and drainage.
The Cornellana Vineyard
The Cornellana Volcano Sedimentario project was born from head winemaker Gonzalo Cárcamo’s passion for soils and his desire to explore, understand, and express the unique terroir of the Cornellana estate in Peumo. To do this, he brought in world-renowned terroir specialist Pedro Parra to analyze the soils in detail, examining their structure and mineral composition. The study identified a 2.2-hectare parcel of exceptional geological complexity, from which three varieties were selected for individual expressions: Cabernet Franc, Carmenère, and Syrah.
The Cabernet Franc block is 0.5 hectares, planted in 1999 from heritage vine material by massale selection, on its own roots. The vineyard has a gentle northwest exposure and sits at an elevation of around 250m above sea level, positioned on a plateau at the convergence of two smaller mountain ranges, a setting that contributes to the remarkable geological complexity that inspired the project in the first place.
While each of the three varieties in the 2.2-hectare parcel is planted in a slightly different soil type, they share a common parent material: volcanic sedimentary rock, a type of shale known in Spanish as lutita, which is highly fragmented and allows roots to penetrate deep into the rock fractures. In the Cabernet Franc block specifically, the topsoil is a volcanic silt roughly 1.5m deep, rich in iron and organic matter, sitting above the volcanic shale bedrock beneath.
The vineyard is farmed organically with drip irrigation in place. Shoot thinning and positioning are practised, though no green harvesting is required in the Cabernet Franc block, which achieves a natural balance on its own.
In the Cellar
The fruit is hand-harvested and hand-sorted, then destemmed but not crushed, with 30% of the stems layered back in with the whole berries. Fermentation takes place in small stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeast and temperature control, kept on the cooler side for a red wine at 18 to 22C. Pigéage is performed during active fermentation until the wine ferments dry, after which the wine undergoes an extended post-fermentation maceration of approximately three months, left untouched. Following this extended skin contact, the free-run wine is aged in a combination of amphora and older barrels for around 18 months, then bottle-aged for a further year before release. Total production for the 2021 vintage was approximately 2,600 bottles.
Wine Details
Producer: Viña La Rosa
Appellation: Cachapoal Valley
Sub-region: Peumo
Vineyard: Cornellana
Soils: 1.5m of volcanic silt, over a volcanic sedimentary bedrock
Alcohol: 13.5%