Bonarda mystery in Chile

A small vinous mystery has emerged in Chile where a renowned ampelographer has examined an old Bonarda vine growing wild in Patagonia.

The vine is located near Lake Puelo in northern Patagonia in a nature park called Tagua Tagua.

The park is the property of Villaseñor Wines from Curico Valley in Maule, which is also now home to a small experimental vineyard that the company planted in 2010 (about 1.5 hectares of Pinot Noir).

Although no vineyard had been planted there before, as well as part of the wider trend in Chile to push vineyards into the extreme north and south of the country, Villaseñor was partially inspired by an old vine growing up a tree in the park.

Now about eight metres tall and thought to be around 70 years old, the vine is located close to a path that leads to the former home of a lady called Maria Magarita Mancilla Sanchez, who moved there in 1953 with her eight children and stayed until 1994.

A DNA profile carried out by Patricio Hinrichsen at the Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias in Santiago identified the vine as Bonarda.

On a recent trip to Chile, José Vouillamoz, ampelographer and co-author of Wine Grapes, heard about the vine and had a chance to visit it to take samples as he wanted to be sure which Bonarda exactly was being referred to (as with many grapes there are a plethora of confusing and misleading names around the world by which many are known).

As he writes here, back in Switzerland his own tests confirmed Hinrichsen’s that the vine was Douce Noire/Bonarda. Douce Noire as it is known in its native Savoy used to be one of the foremost varieties, is perhaps better-known as Bonarda in Argentina, as well as Charbono in California and Turca in Northern Italy.

Grown fairly extensively in neighbouring Argentina, there is relatively little Bonarda in Chile and even less as far south as Patagonia so, asks Vouillamoz, “how could Douce Noire (= Bonarda) reach such a remote valley on Lake Puelo where no vineyard had ever been planted?”

The most obvious explanation is that Señora Sanchez planted it, perhaps after a visit to Argentina. Or was it brought by a visitor from Argentina or someone else who’d been there?

And why? Bonarda is a late-ripening variety, not suitable for chilly Patagonia. Was it just for fruit or decoration? “What was the rationale?” pondered Vouillamoz but, apparently with no human leads to follow, the mystery of this lone Bonarda vine may have to remain just that, unknowable.