La Mision
The young winemaking project La Mision began in 2016, when Elena Pantaleoni, owner of the Emilia-Romagna winery La Stoppa, and Nicola Massa officially started this journey in Cauquenes, in the Maule Valley, with the intent to reveal the most authentic potential of Chilean wine. The connection between Elena and Chile, a country where her mother lived for over 20 years, right near the village of Cauquenes, was a fundamental aspect that convinced the producer to embark on this adventure. In fact, it was precisely when she went to visit her mother in 2015, seeing the century-old vineyards rooted in this extraordinary territory, that she decided to found La Mision, driven by the desire to safeguard and enhance the incredible wine heritage of the area.
The La Mision winery consists of 4 hectares of vineyards mainly dedicated to Paìs, the oldest Chilean variety imported into the country by Spanish missionaries back in the 1500s. Alongside this grape variety, there is also Moscato di Alessandria, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. The plants,raised in bush form, are centuries-old, rooted on their own roots in granitic soils worked in such a way as to preserve their structure and natural fertility. For this reason, plowing is done with the help of a horse, and irrigation is also excluded. Once the grapes have reached the ideal degree of ripeness, hand harvesting is carried out, followed by manual destemming done with the help of a traditional wooden zaranda, a destemmer traditionally used in Chile. The grapes are then crushed in the classic lagar, typical wooden raulì containers where fermentation occurs spontaneously, accompanied by long macerations on the skins, in maximum respect for local winemaking traditions. The subsequent aging period takes place in used barriques for reds and in steel tanks for whites.
This is how the wines of Agricola La Mision are born, expressions with an ancestral character born from a Chilean winemaking past at risk from international wine standardization,but which Elena and Nicola are strongly determined to protect.
The young winemaking project La Mision began in 2016, when Elena Pantaleoni, owner of the Emilia-Romagna winery La Stoppa, and Nicola Massa officially started this journey in Cauquenes, in the Maule Valley, with the intent to reveal the most authentic potential of Chilean wine. The connection between Elena and Chile, a country where her mother lived for over 20 years, right near the village of Cauquenes, was a fundamental aspect that convinced the producer to embark on this adventure. In fact, it was precisely when she went to visit her mother in 2015, seeing the century-old vineyards rooted in this extraordinary territory, that she decided to found La Mision, driven by the desire to safeguard and enhance the incredible wine heritage of the area.
The La Mision winery consists of 4 hectares of vineyards mainly dedicated to Paìs, the oldest Chilean variety imported into the country by Spanish missionaries back in the 1500s. Alongside this grape variety, there is also Moscato di Alessandria, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. The plants,raised in bush form, are centuries-old, rooted on their own roots in granitic soils worked in such a way as to preserve their structure and natural fertility. For this reason, plowing is done with the help of a horse, and irrigation is also excluded. Once the grapes have reached the ideal degree of ripeness, hand harvesting is carried out, followed by manual destemming done with the help of a traditional wooden zaranda, a destemmer traditionally used in Chile. The grapes are then crushed in the classic lagar, typical wooden raulì containers where fermentation occurs spontaneously, accompanied by long macerations on the skins, in maximum respect for local winemaking traditions. The subsequent aging period takes place in used barriques for reds and in steel tanks for whites.
This is how the wines of Agricola La Mision are born, expressions with an ancestral character born from a Chilean winemaking past at risk from international wine standardization,but which Elena and Nicola are strongly determined to protect.
