Located four hours south of Santiago, Gonzáles Bastías is a village and a still operating train station of the last “Ramal” train of South America. It is also the name of this ancient vineyard, located in the coastal dry lands of Maule in central Chile, about 40km from the Pacific Ocean.
The name of the town was changed from Infiernillo in 1955 in honour of the great local poet and uncle of José Luis Gómez Bastías, fifth generation of vintners, who, from a very young age began working on these same lands. Today, together with his wife, Enologist Daniela Lorenzo, whose ancestors also come from a few stations down river, the dedication to putting value to the ancient traditions of their ancestors continues.
Currently about 30,000 bottles are produced annually; production that comes mostly from four hectares of almost two hundred year old vineyards of País and other Creole strains. These ancestral vines are “pie franco” meaning no rootstock (ie grown on original rootstock). The vines are cultivated in head trellis, without irrigation and in soils of granite origin; all surrounded by the coastal mountain range and Sclerophyll forests. Animal grazing helps control pastures and also acts as a fertilization method. The plowing is done with horses and pruning is done by hand to maintain the longevity of the old vines.
