Chile’s own Irene Paiva & Argentine legend Mauricio Lorca answered our quick-fire questions on the challenges of winemaking in the shadow of the Andes, favorite food pairings, and, of course, a local’s guide to their favorite corners of this incredible region.
Why are you proud to make wines from South America?
Irene Paiva
Irene: Because Chile is, in many ways, an ideal country for winemaking — very similar to California, but in the southern hemisphere. I like using that comparison because it makes it so much easier for people to understand what we have here: the diversity of terroirs, the mountains meeting the coast, a climate built for growing great grapes. Beyond that, Chile is a natural, clean country, full of pristine landscapes, and I love being able to show that through the wines themselves. And on a personal level, I'm proud to be one of the first women to lead in the development of winemaking here — that's something that fills me with real pride.
Mauricio Lorca in his natural habitat – at the winery, red in hand, and probably dreaming up his next masterpiece. Stay tuned for more from this Argentinian legend.
Mauricio: Because Argentina forced me to be bold. Working in Europe too, I learned to admire tradition, but here in Mendoza tradition is still being written, and that gives me the freedom to interpret the place with my own perspective, without a three-hundred-year-old formula dictating what the wine has to be. I'm proud to be part of a country that's still discovering itself oenologically — and to be able to bring everything I learn abroad into that conversation.
If you close your eyes while drinking your wines, what part of the landscape would you taste?
Irene: You'd be tasting the whole journey, from the Andes to the sea, passing through the valley in between. That big swing between day and night temperatures is what gives the fruit such fruitiness and balance at once — ripe, generous flavors held up by real freshness and tension. Depending on the wine, you might pick up the cooler, saline edge from vineyards closer to the coast, or the mineral thread from granite and clay where our old vines dig in near the Andes. Either way, it's that day-to-night contrast, stretched across such different landscapes, that lets the wines be both bold and precise at the same time.
Mauricio: The mountain range, basically. Meltwater from the Andes flows down and filters through alluvial soils of stone, sand, and silt, and you can taste that in the wine's minerality. It's snowmelt that passed through rock before reaching the vine's roots. And in the wines we age underwater in Potrerillos, the low temperature and constant pressure of the reservoir add a different texture — rounder, softer.
What is the biggest misconception about Chilean and Argentine wines?
Irene: That we only make big, easy, inexpensive reds. Chile spent decades building a reputation on volume, and that story stuck. But personally, and as Viña i, alongside other small producers, we're proving that Chile has enormous diversity to work with. We're not interested in mass-produced wine — we want to show a range of wines that are entertaining, different, and full of character, wines with a real sense of place, not just a reliable price point. We're also showing o some surprising whites, which people don't always expect from Chile — we've brought in a coastal Sauvignon Blanc that captures that cooler, more mineral side of the country beautifully.
Mauricio: That we're "the Malbec country" and nothing else. Malbec is the entry point, not the ceiling. There's a diversity of soils, altitudes, and climates — from Valle de Uco to Zona Este — that lets you make completely different wines fifteen kilometers apart. Reducing us to a single grape variety means not understanding the geological complexity beneath our feet.
What makes it a challenging place to make wines?
Irene: Water, mostly. We rely on snowmelt from the Andes, and every year is a negotiation with how much we get and when — though the last two seasons have actually been encouraging, with more snow and rain over the winters helping to ease that pressure. Beyond that, we're in a moment where wine consumption is down globally, which is making everything harder, and we're seeing a lot of vineyards being pulled out because of it. Finding the extra hands we need for harvest is also getting tougher every year, fewer people available and harder to bring on when we need them most. And underneath all of it, we're working directly immersed in nature, which can always surprise you in some way: frost, drought, an unexpected rain right at harvest. You learn to make decisions in the vineyard, not just the cellar, and to stay humble about how much is out of your hands.
Mauricio: The extreme thermal amplitude, the water scarcity — here everything relies on irrigation; it doesn't rain like it does in Europe — and the altitude, which forces you to work with almost surgical precision: a difference of just a few meters in elevation completely changes the wine's profile. Add hail on top of that, which can ruin a harvest in ten minutes, and making wine in Mendoza means constantly negotiating with the mountain.
What local dish would you recommend with your wines?
Irene: Pastel de choclo — a warm corn pie with beef, chicken, olives, and a slightly sweet, golden crust. It's comfort food from this valley. At my house, we make a version that's really special, cooked in clay pailas that hold their heat for a long time, with a toasted top that comes out golden and crackling. It looks incredible before you even take a bite, and that crunch against the soft corn underneath is what makes it so good. Personally, I love pairing it with our Chardonnay, or with our Carménère when I want something with a bit more structure alongside it. And then there are empanadas de horno, also homemade, eaten straight out of the oven with your hands, wrapped in a paper napkin so you don't burn yourself and don't lose that incredible juice that spills out with the first bite. At home, our pairing of choice is red: Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, or Syrah, something with enough grip to stand up to that rich, juicy filling.
Mauricio: Rather than one specific dish, I'd invite you to experience Espacio Inspirado, our gastronomic space at the winery, just 15 minutes from the city of Mendoza with a direct view of the Andes mountain range. A shameless plug, but truly an unforgettable experience!
How has Angel support allowed you to make your wines?
Irene: Since the very beginning with Naked Wines, more than 12 years ago now, they've allowed me and my wines to be present in the UK and the US, markets I never would have reached on my own in the same way. I really value that relationship, the growth it's let me achieve over all these years, and the direct connection with the Angels; it's a completely different kind of relationship than working through traditional distribution. Beyond the support itself, Angels have pushed me to keep getting better, to develop wines that make sense not just organoleptically, but conceptually, for the people actually drinking them. That challenge has shaped how I think about winemaking as much as anything in the vineyard has.
Mauricio: Naked gave me something that's extremely rare to find as an independent winemaker: a direct connection to the people who drink the wine, without intermediaries diluting the story. That allowed me to keep being the author of my wines, to make stylistic decisions without having to answer to what "sells more." The Angel community values exactly that intellectual honesty. It's a model that backed me to experiment and show my signature without filters.
How do your regions influence the wines you make?
Irene: Curicó sits in the Central Valley, between the coastal range and the Andes, so I have access to fruit shaped by very different conditions — cooler, elegant grapes from sites closer to the hills, and riper, more generous fruit from the valley floor. My wines are really a conversation between those two extremes. Most of the grapes we use come from our own vineyards, so we're involved in everything, from pruning to the final bottle. And along the way, everything is hands-on, done with a lot of care and attention to detail. I like passing those personal touches, and often family ones too, into every bottle we make, so what ends up in the glass isn't just a reflection of the land; it's a reflection of us.
Mauricio: Every wine I make starts from one principle: let the place speak before I do. I work a lot with Valle de Uco, with poor, cold soils that give tension and freshness, and with Zona Este, with deeper soils that give body and generosity. I don't try to correct the terroir with winemaking technique — I try to understand it and let it express itself. My signature as an author isn't about imposing a style; it's about knowing how to listen to what each plot of land wants to say.
How would you describe your region to someone who’s never visited?
Irene: Think of Curicó as Chile's answer to a quieter, smaller-scale California valley — but here the geography is even more extreme. Chile is incredibly narrow, so narrow that the ocean almost touches the Andes, and that closeness shapes everything we grow. In Curicó, we have vineyards up on the piedmont of the Andes, and others down in the central valley floor, right by a river — two completely different terroirs just a few kilometers apart. One gives you cooler nights, poorer, rockier soils, and more tension in the wine; the other gives you deeper soils, more warmth, and riper, rounder fruit. It's special because in such a short distance, you get this incredible diversity, all surrounded by land that's still natural and untouched. That contrast, and that purity, is exactly what I want people to taste in the glass.
Mauricio: I'd tell them to imagine a desert at the foot of the highest mountain range in the Americas, where people brought in meltwater through canals to grow something beautiful in the middle of nowhere.
What made you fall in love with your region – and what keeps you there?
Irene: This isn't just where I make wine, it's where I live. My house, the vineyard, and the winery are one single world, my everyday life, and I still enjoy it every time, walking out with my dogs in the mornings, watching the light change over the rows. My kids grew up watching this winery come to life, they saw the vines planted from nothing, and there are so many stories with them from when they were tiny, helping out without even realizing they were part of building something. The same goes for my husband. What we have today started with six barrels in our garage, and watching it grow from that into vineyards stretching from the Andes, through the center, and down to the coast, giving us the full palette to work with, that's what made me fall in love with this place. It's not something I visit to make wine. It's something I live.
Maurico: The light. It sounds poetic, but it's literal: the thermal amplitude and the altitude give a luminosity I haven't seen anywhere else, and that light goes straight into the grape. I fell in love watching how a place this harsh, this dry, this extreme, can give birth to something as delicate as high-altitude grape clusters. That tension between harshness and delicacy is what captured me forever.
If a friend were visiting, what are your top 3 can’t-miss experiences?
Irene: I'd take them myself. First, a hike through Radal Siete Tazas, waterfalls and river pools carved into volcanic rock, about an hour from the winery, I love showing people that side of the landscape. Second, a day at Lake Vichuquén or the coastal town of Iloca for fresh seafood, driving them out there myself so they see just how different the coast feels from the valley. Third, if the timing works, I'd bring them along to Curicó's Fiesta de la Vendimia, the harvest festival where the whole town comes out for music, food, and wine. Along the way, I'd take them up Cerro Condell for the view over the city, pointing out the Plaza de Armas and the Alameda below, that classic layout you still find at the heart of small Chilean towns. And I'd end the day the way I always do with people I care about, back at my house with my husband, sharing a lasagna and alfajores, tortas de Curicó, from a family here that makes everything completely by hand, alongside a bottle or two of our own wines from the bodega. It's my favorite way to close out a day, good food, good wine, good company, at home.
Mauricio: I'd say you don't need to pick three different things, because all three live in a single experience: Potrerillos. There you have the mountain, the river, and the mountain air just fifteen minutes from the winery, all together. We're the first in Mendoza to age wine underwater, 14 meters deep in the reservoir — you sail out by boat to the exact spot, dive in, and pull out with your own hands the bottles that have been resting in the silence of the water. It's not a metaphor — it's a wine that literally aged surrounded by mountains, pressure, and meltwater cold. And you close out the day heading back to the winery for lunch with that same wine, fresh out of the water, with a view of the Andes. That's the complete experience.
