Gonzalez Bastias "Descabezado" Pais Maule 2024

Press 4 Mix/Red • August 2025 Direct Press Selection

Cultivated by the Bastias family since the early 19th century, you have to take a canoe from the train station to reach the town and winery that are both called Gonzalez Bastias. There is no modern machinery, everything is done by hand (or horse) using biodynamic practices, and no sulfur is added to any of the wines. In this pre-industrial time warp, they now have a new winery because of the intense flooding that occurred during 2023 vintage and destroyed their old one. Though the vines were in up to six feet of water, they were 200 years old and resilient enough to withstand the floods. However the loss of their winery and cellar left them feeling "headless" so they named a wine after this feeling: Descabezado.

Descabezado is 100% Pais grapes made in the "new style of Pais", with a light, quick maceration. Guava, alpine strawberry, and hisbiscus notes, this drinks more like juice than wine. But it has just enough phenolic undertones — subtle bitter notes of blood orange, citrus zest, and Campari — to make this more complex and adult than it's juicy, crushable profile would suggest at first. Hopefully this is not just a one-off bottling but something they continue to make in the coming years as they rebuild. Jonathan Kemp