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In this video, we tell the story of Viña Tipaume, a project that began in 1996 in the Cachapoal Valley, one of the first artisanal wine projects in Chile. In 2005, they produced their first wine: Tipaume, a handcrafted and 100% natural wine. Here's the story 🙂

Yves Pouzet, an agronomist and oenologist from the University of Paris, arrived in Chile in the early 1980s to take charge of setting up Viña Los Vascos. Before that, he had worked in vineyards in Chablis (France), Napa Valley (United States), and Ica (Peru).

A few weeks after arriving in Chile, he met his future wife, Valentina Grez, with whom he now does everything in Viña Tipaume.

But before Tipaume, Yves spent almost 10 years working for different vineyards in Chile, Brazil and India, while at the same time, with great patience, he looked for a piece of land where he could one day establish his dream of owning his own vineyard.

It was in this way that around 1995, while exploring the interior of the Rengo commune, a place they frequented on weekends to practice climbing, they spoke with a farmer to ask him if he knew of any land for sale in the area, and by chance, they found themselves a few meters from a plot of land for sale, which ended up being the origin of Tipaume.

The vineyard's name was inspired by a small stream that borders the property and bears the same name. Tipaume is a Mapudungun word meaning "place of departure," interpreted as the waters that flow from the Andes Mountains to irrigate the crops.

Yves knew that the grapes from Cachapoal were excellent, especially the Carmenere, so that was the variety he planted primarily, along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Lacrima Cristi, and Viognier. Years later, he would also plant Pinot Noir and Sangiovese. In total, the vineyard covers 5 hectares.

From the beginning, viticulture was organic, and years later, biodynamic. The vineyards are not irrigated because the aim is for the roots to penetrate as deeply as possible into the subsoil, in search of water and minerals that will give the wines greater complexity. Furthermore, not irrigating makes the vines more resistant to disease.

For several years the grapes that were harvested were sold to larger vineyards, until in 2004 they decided to build a winery under the house to be able to vinify their first wines, which would come the following year where 1,162 bottles were produced.

Between 2008 and 2011, the idea arose to make wine in clay amphorae, just as was done thousands of years ago. A few amphorae were handcrafted, and only in 2011 was the first commercial wine bottled, which would be named Grez: in honor of Valentina and also taking advantage of the fact that "Gres" means clay in French.

Currently, around 3,000 bottles are produced annually, half of which are sold in some of the best restaurants in Chile (Boragó, Ambrosia, 99, among others) while the other half is exported to countries such as Brazil, Japan, Norway and Belgium.

The family: Above Vincent Pouzet and Francois Pouzet, Below Valentina Grez and Yves Pouzet.