Roberto Henríquez Santa Cruz de Coya País

In Chile's wild, windy, and extreme Bio Bío Valley, Roberto Henríquez is the guardian of some of South America's oldest vines. Gnarled, free-standing País bushes that have survived for over two centuries on the riverbanks. He studied formally, worked in big wineries, and then embarked on a global pilgrimage that ended in the Loire Valley with natural wine guru René Mosse. That experience lit the fuse.

At 29, he came home. He started his winery in 2015 with a radical (or perhaps, ancient) idea: to preserve not just the old vines, but the traditional pipeño way of making wine. He farms everything himself, organically, with no irrigation. In the cellar, it's all carbonic maceration, native yeasts, and aging in old Rauli wood barrels. Nothing is added, nothing is filtered. This is winemaking stripped back to its most honest, handcrafted form.

This 100% País is his crowd-pleasing manifesto. It’s a juicy red that has the tangy snap of a pomegranate seed and the dusty sweetness of a crushed wild strawberry. There's a perfumed lift of candied violet and peony. But don't let that fool you: it's a complex wine. There's a subtle, smoky, vegetal edge, bright acidity, and a fresh, mineral finish. It’s light-bodied, translucent, and absolutely buzzing with life and character.

This is the bottle that changes what you think Chilean wine can be.