As he himself characteristically states, Pedro Parra is not so much interested in the technical aspects of winemaking as he is in the philosophy behind producing great wines — in other words, how to “cook the eggs.” Parra is without a doubt one of the most authentic representatives of the New Chile. He produces wines from the remote southern region of Itata that have absolutely nothing in common with the industrial, mass-produced wines on which Chile built its export-driven — and to some extent supermarket — success story.
Pedro Parra is one of only three terroir specialists in the world. He has worked as a consultant alongside some of the most important names on the global wine scene and has traveled extensively throughout Europe, collaborating with wineries such as Clos Mogador, Terroir al Limit and Mas Martinet in Priorat; Dominio del Águila in Ribera del Duero; Marco Marengo in La Morra; Biondi Santi, Salvioni and Argiano in Montalcino; Domaine de Cassiopée, Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair and Domaine de la Commaraine in Burgundy; as well as Quintessa, Flowers, Hamel and Marc Tarlov’s Rose & Arrow in the United States, among many others. He also had the opportunity to work for years with Alberto Antonini, Jean-Marc Roulot and Comando G, whom he considers not only close friends but also mentors.
In 2011, he decided to launch a small personal project in Chile, producing wines in Itata, very close to where he was born. His wines carry a subtle “touch” of the people he met and who influenced him throughout the years. Concepts such as drinkability, complexity, finesse and aromatic expression are of paramount importance to him and to his wines.
The only way to create these wines was to “protect” the immensely important and historic terroir of Itata — a region that represents the Old World within the New World. In this deeply historic terroir, he chose to work the soils with exceptional care and respect, cultivating grapes in a fully natural way, with zero chemical inputs, from old, dry-farmed vineyards. Proper viticulture is the key to allowing wines to express terroir at their highest level, with Parra intervening as little as possible in the winery. Pedro Parra’s wines speak of their place alone, not of their producer’s ambitions — a place that was forgotten for many years, but today represents some of the most exciting wine Chile has to offer the world.
The magic of Itata’s old vineyards, its unique granitic terroir, the cool climate with heavy rainfall and strong winds, and the dry-farmed vineyards all come together to define one of the most terroir-driven and emerging wine regions on the planet. Through his wines, Pedro Parra places Itata alongside regions such as Etna, Gredos and Tenerife in Spain, Swartland in South Africa, Santorini in Greece, and Colares in Portugal — among the most exciting expressions of what is new, yet at the same time profoundly old, in today’s global vineyard landscape.
