Viña Trapi del Bueno (Viña Trapi)

The winery

Trapi del Bueno is the project of two partners: the viticulturist Luis Alberto Moller, born in southern Chile, and the winemaker Rodrigo Romero, who worked in Burgundy with the domaines Pierre Bourée, Patrick Piuze and Jean-Marc Brocard. After ten years searching for a farm in the south where they could make fresh, fruity wines, in 2010 they planted their vineyard in the municipality of La Unión, in the Los Ríos Region, about 900 kilometers from Santiago. The name joins two local references: Trapi, which means chili pepper in Mapudungun and is the name of the hill where the vines grow, and the Bueno River, which runs about five kilometers away.

The vineyard sits at the western foot of the coastal range, at about 40 meters above sea level and 35 kilometers from the sea, at latitude 40° 17' south. The neighboring hills, which rise to nearly a thousand meters, hold back much of the Pacific rain, and the cold comes from the latitude more than from coastal fog. The rows follow the contours of a slope with a 25% gradient facing northwest, north and northeast, on soils of ancient volcanic ash, clayey and strewn with iron-rich stones. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Noir grow there, picked by hand by neighbors from the nearby community. The cellar works with minimal intervention and native yeasts: the Savage line, aged in steel, goes for the direct fruit of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay; Hand-Made selects clusters and berries by hand and puts part of the Sauvignon Blanc and all of the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir through French barrels, three wines bottled unfiltered; Aliado is a natural Riesling, and the Brut Nature is a traditional-method sparkling wine that spends three years on its lees.

The winery publishes no visits or tastings, and the farm is in a rural area of hills and forest west of La Unión. The most direct way to try the wines is the online store at trapi.cl, which ships throughout Chile with a minimum order of six bottles, from CLP 12,990 for the Pinot Noir Savage. Its store locator also places them at Bocanáriz, in Santiago; at CK Vinos & Gourmet and Vinos y Amigos, in Osorno and Puerto Montt; at the Hotel Cumbres in Puerto Varas and at the restaurant Ephedra in San Pedro de Atacama. Trapi del Bueno belongs to MOVI, the Movimiento de Viñateros Independientes (independent winegrowers' movement), which brings its members together at fairs in Santiago. For any inquiry, the winery can be reached at contacto@trapi.cl and +56 9 9279 7873.