Burning Questions for Old Vines in Chile
Charred Old Vines from the recent fires in Itata, BioBio and Maule, Chile.
Derek Mossman Knapp, of Garage Wine Co. reflects on the devastating fires of 2017 and shares his viewpoint on the present situation, the causes and what can be done to put a stop to this pattern. (16th February 2023)
“Five years ago I wrote a personal account of what it was like to witness first hand and help fight the bush fires amidst the old vines of the Maule Valley. See Jancis Robinson article: From the frontline of Chile’s fires, if only to take stock and recognise a recurring and disturbing pattern. Today I am sickened to see it happening all over again to friends and colleagues in Itata and BioBio and to a lesser degree in Maule. (In early days one of the fires came close to our Soothsayer Cinsault Vineyards, but we have been spared this time.)
This crisis has not passed. It has only just begun. When the flames die down attention will too and then it will get lost in the smoke which will in turn fade just as things have done in Australia, California, Spain, Crete . . . Thousands of hectares, homes, businesses, vineyards, and two dozen lives have been lost. A burgeoning economic revival of farming and wine culture important for the next generation, the history and culture of Itata and BioBio has been brutally gut punched. Rebuilding will be arduous, but farms and wineries will be rebuilt, including in and around Guarilihue where a wine, food and travel hub has been emerging for several years now. It too will stand up and brush itself off and get past this. I say with caution, based upon real-life experience from five years ago, that many of the old vines will also be revived with time. More on this later.
What is tremendous, and different from 2017, is how the wine trade has responded. Sommeliers, writers, producers, winemakers, the guilds of the wine business like Wines of Chile have quickly begun to raise funds to help with recovery. There are auctions and events with many options to help raise funds and more being planned. It is a formidable ground swell of support that has broken down barriers. One event will be a tasting that includes the participation of Alejandro Vigil - Argentine winemaker [and President of Wines of Argentina] coming to Chile for a tasting with Luis Gutierrez of Robert Parker´s Wine Advocate.
“I say with caution, based upon real-life experience from five years ago, that many of the old vines will also be revived with time.”
What is different this time vs 2017?
The ground-swell of support is different. It demonstrates that the old vines of the Secano Interior (the historic name for Maule - Itata - Bio Bio) are no longer a side show for Chile´s big C varieties. They have become a bona fide part of Chile´s offerings and important pieces of the mosaic that is Chilean wine. Old vines have helped to correct the idea that Chile is Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc priced appropriately. After years of hearing her trade organisations speak of diversity, old vines finally made it real. I have been a witness to this change over many years, and I for one am not surprised. Almost all of the wine trade’s principal brand´s today have an adventurous line of wines that includes a Cinsault from Itata. Others make País, still others fizz from heritage varieties. While many would say that this inclusion has been important for the region, I tend to think it has been the other way around: it is important for Chile.
It is terrific to see the larger more established wineries, many without their own vineyards of Cinsault in the area, wanting to help the small local farmers, wineries, kitchens, lodgings who have over the past decade formed a hub of wine, food and travel in and around Guarilihue for one example amongst many in Itata and Bio Bio. These hubs of wine and food culture are what will help rebuild the local economy when the smoke clears. Being included in a WhatsApp group organising the response over the past two weeks was food for my spirit, seeing so much energy applied selflessness by so many, so quickly.
Map showing the scale of fires in the region.
Clarity Emerging from the Smoke
It is all too easy, and unproductive, to explain the fires by extreme temperatures owing to ¨global warming¨ and simply let the cycle of ¨thoughts and prayers¨ begin. I say there is more that could have been done, especially given the previous experience we only just had. In my article five years ago, I said that Global Warming was not the cause, but rather man was. Too many forests of non-native trees had literally reduced the water table and created a gigantic tinderbox. Mother Nature had simply had enough of such wanton abuse and the fires were her attempt at a reset. Less than one month after the fires were put out [in 2017] water began to run in small creeks where it had not been seen in decades, because so many pine trees were no longer there to hoard it.
How did we ever allow such indiscriminate planting of a monoculture? What changes are needed in the wake of these fires? Recently, Juan Ledesma of Viñas Ineditas (the man who discovered the Malbec of San Rosendo, and who has worked identifying heritage varieties in Itata and BioBio for years) said : “The main problem is still the forestry industry. The firebreaks they claim to have made are only roads which don’t do enough for protection. A simple solution would be for the state to regulate larger fire breaks that would really mitigate risk.”
Juan continued: ¨Historically hundreds and hundreds of hectares of wheat and oats after threshing was subject to the same 40 C temps for decades in this period of extreme temps. The coniferous trees are the problem. They burn so fast like huge matches lighting the next like dominoes¨
Juan touches a nerve that goes a long way to addressing the problem at hand. How did the fires manage to spread so fast? Large tracts of forests have been drying the lands underneath them sucking out far too much moisture. The forestry firms do not have adequate firebreaks because regulation is not something Chilean business takes kindly to. Spoiler alert: the invisible hand of the market will not solve this ongoing problem. It won´t help with global warming either.
What many people from outside Chile will not know is that the state subsidised the planting of many of these forests. Thus, one could say that they share a responsibility to prevent forest fires, or, in terms the business community can understand: the state should have the right to protect / insure its investment with better safety measures like proper firebreaks.
The principal means to fight these fires is aircraft: helicopters and airplanes. Most are rented from brigades from the Northern hemisphere for use during the Northern hemisphere’s off-season: Canada and Spain.
The firemen would do well to study how to work together with these other countries. Perhaps they could bring lessons for better regulation and long-term planning with them? In these days a Chilean businessman has been charged with hindering the work of the fire brigades, a charge if proven involves jail time. He was accused by a pilot from one of the Spanish helicopters who complained about not being able to do the work he was accustomed to doing.
One thing is for sure: whoever calculated the planting of so many thousands of hectares with Pine forests in this region was either paid off, or a lunatic.
Evidence of the proximity of the forestry industry to vineyards.
How some of the Old Vineyards can be Revived
The life force of the roots of many of these vineyards will produce new shoots next Spring and with some work they will be able to use the charred trunks of the same vines as support as they grow. It is difficult to imagine now, as it was in the aftermath of 2017, but sprout they will with bright green tentacles rising like in the movie Aliens.
See pictures of this happening after 2017. The Medel Vineyard pictured here appears normal from a few metres distant. It is only when one looks under the canopy that one realises the gnarly old wood is charred and dead and new shoots are forming trunks alongside. This vineyard produced some fruit in its second year and by its third year it was well on its way to recovery. It is important to cull fruit in the early years so that energy can be dedicated to reforming a proper trunk. In our work with small farmers over the years I have learned that while gnarly old trunks make for wonderful photographs, they are but slowly fading wood. The roots are what get down into the decomposed granite to drink. And a vineyard is as wise and resilient as its roots are old.
The vine appears normal but looking closer reveals the old trunk is dead and the new shoots are forming trunks alongside.
Bush fires today are far more violent and widespread than in the past, but vineyard rejuvenation after fires is nothing new. Old Vines are a long-term endeavour. Sharing knowledge for their revival should be an important component of The Old Vine Conference´s work going forward. And I leave you with a burning question: as more and more farmers are choosing regenerative methods and no longer tilling, what increased risk does this bring to drawing fire into the vineyard?”
How can you help?
In winemaker Leo Erazos´s words: ¨There is no better moral or economic support, no greater show of care, than to open a bottle this weekend from a producer in Guarilihue. This will be a motivation for all of those who have been affected and we can continue working, continue to dream, and continue to look after this patrimony which are our old vines, and the tradition to cultivate this land”
— Leo Erazo, A los Vinateros Bravos.
Cultivated vineyard served as firebreak and prevented a fire from continuing down the valley.