Vino Kofkeche

The winery

Kofkeche was born in 2014, when Jorge Andrés Morandé, following an idea from his friend José Luis Monge, planted two hectares of Chardonnay in the small Pajal valley, in the hills near Traiguén, in Malleco province. He was after a cool-climate variety that would give a wine unlike the Chardonnays of the Central Valley, in an area where Swiss, German and French settlers planted the first vines about a century and a half ago, of which few traces remain today. The name, which the winery translates as "little people," honors the Kofkeche culture, the ancient inhabitants of these lands. The vineyard belongs to the company Agrícola y Forestal Kofkeche Ltda., and in 2021 it was one of the five wineries that launched the joint brand Vinos de La Araucanía.

The vines grow on gentle hills between the El Pajal and Lipilican streams, facing northeast and southeast, surrounded by meadows, patches of native forest and wetlands the winery is restoring, amid wheat fields and woods. The soil is mostly decomposed granite, coarse in texture and rich in quartz, mixed with trumao (volcanic ash soil): it drains well and forces the roots to explore. The climate is warmer in summer and cold and rainy in winter and spring, with spring frosts that in some years cut the harvest sharply. Part of the fruit has also gone to other wineries: the Morandé Black Series Chardonnay 2020 from Malleco was made with grapes from Kofkeche and Baettig.

The house makes only Chardonnay, under two labels: Kofkeche Chardonnay and Feder. According to the technical sheet for the Kofkeche Chardonnay 2020, the winemaking is artisanal: gentle, slow pressing, must settled cold for 12 to 24 hours in stainless steel, alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in new and three-year-old barrels (part of the must ferments in tank), made in Chile from French Vosges oak, and aging on the lees with bâtonnage. The winery publishes no visits or hours for tourists. Its wines are ordered directly through the website form, by email or by message on Instagram, with shipping throughout Chile, and in Santiago they are sold by the store Patagon Wines, in Lo Barnechea, also through its online store.