Antiyal Winery:
Changing the world of wine
By: Alaina Boukedes
Photos: Jonathan Norris
(Audio Enhanced Page)
The car snakes its way around mountains and roads that are too small for anything larger than a bicycle. A mother dog and her pups stare at the black Mercedes like it’s the one out of place, watching as it wiggles its way down the hill. Hills and peaks circle us as we reach the valley floor and we are greeted by farms and crops of grapevines. Varying colors make the fields look like a watercolor palette. It’s a Chilean winter, with temperatures about 65 degrees and showing no signs of getting anywhere close to cold. The mountains act as bones, protecting it from harm and guarding it from the elements.
Marina Ashton greets us at the gate that closes her business off from the outside world. She is the leader of Antiyal Winery, where she and her husband, Alvaro Espinoza, produce 30,000 bottles of organic wine every harvest.
Espinoza has been in the business for 30 years, working at another winery before creating Antiyal with Ashton in 1996. Compared to larger companies that can create a million bottles a year, Antiyal is considered “boutique.” Though the winery is small, Antiyal has adopted a closed cycle for its winemaking process known as biodynamic, which makes it unique among amongst other wineries. This cycle emphasizes not only what kind of wine they make but how it’s made.
"Compost is life."
“It’s brought from within, we don’t lose anything,” says Ashton.
A biodynamic process pertains to everything that is used to create a final product. From the soil to the water, all components are recycled and used in other forms. This is an efficient and effective way to decrease waste and create a more natural product. Antiyal doesn’t bring in outside fertilizers or repellents to grow their grapes, they use what they have on their premises. Everything on their one acre has a purpose that promotes biodynamic and organic production.
The placement of the crops is thoughtful. Large gaps appear between trees, a design called a biological corridor. The corridors allow insects and other animals to thrive and keep ecological balance, Ashton says. This may seem like a waste of land to larger companies, but to Antiyal, it is essential to maintaining the biodiversity of the farm. Attention to every detail is what keeps the closed system working. Cultivating a working ecosystem is imperative to keeping Antiyal organic, Ashton says, because the bugs are integrated into the soil and land. When companies use chemical pesticides, it creates bugs that have developed an immunity to the chemicals, warranting newer and stronger chemicals each season.
The soil is fertilized by compost created on site. Animals that roam the premises provide manure for the crops. Left over grape skins are put back into the land after being pressed. To add nutrients to the compost, Antiyal uses “biological preps,” animal intestines stuffed with herbs, to integrate valuable bacteria and create rich soil. Branches and clippings from harvested trees line the pathways to keep the mud at bay and the rest is put into the compost.
“Compost is life,” Ashton says. “There is gold in biodynamics.”
The winemaking process starts in April when the harvest begins, with fewer than 20 workers on the farm. The crops of grapes are picked and cleaned. The grapes are then placed on the roof of the building that houses the machinery and are pressed, letting gravity transport the juice to the fermenting machinery. The juice goes into specific fermenting equipment, depending on the type of wine they are making. Their standard Antiyal and Queen wines go intotraditional receptacles, while the Carmenere, a grape specific to Chile, is placed in egg-shaped cement barrels to create continuous movement and fluidity.
From there, the wine is placed in wooden barrels to age. The average aging time for their wine is about 10 months, after which the wine is bottled and sold to the public. Only 20 percent of the wine is sold in Chile, with the rest being exported around the world and sold online. This is common among wineries in Chile, where most of the product is sold out of the country. Chilean wine is becoming more popular due to its varying types of land used to grow the grapes. Most red wine is grown in the Maipo Valley due to its heat and dry climate, while white wine is mostly grown near bodies of water because of the wind that brings moisture. Antiyal is solely red wine, for now.
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When looking ahead, Ashton does not see a large booming business but a smaller, efficient company that continues to look for better ways of making its product. Instead of putting money into expanding, Antiyal is trying to create a solar powered water irrigation system by taking free flowing water from the Andes and using it for the land. The process takes time and money, but that is the nature of the game when growing biodynamically, she says. It is also the reason many wineries in Chile have not switched to the biodynamic process.
“It’s not magic,” Ashton says.
Antiyal is responsible for ensuring that the valley is taken care of and that their product reflects that. They celebrate what Chile has to offer and set an example of wholesome business.While Antiyal moves through the 21st century, they are focused on undoing the technological conveniences of today and that is a skill that other companies still have to learn.
“People don’t want to learn, but we all have to try,” says Ashton.