Matt Ridgway left his home in Dorset in 2003 for South America. As he puts it, ‘I came out as an English-teaching backpacker when I was 25 and somehow ended up owning a winery.’
It’s not a very big winery. La Despensa in Chile’s Colchagua makes a total of 15,000 bottles in small lots every year now, having started out in 2015 with just one barrel. But he does all the work himself, helped in the vineyard by one other chap. Labels and wax tops are applied to each bottle by Ridgway himself and he says he does all the ‘marketing, sales, deliveries, general dogsbody etc’ stuff himself, adding, ‘we are 100% organic (although not certified) and get all our electricity from our 10-KW solar plant’.
He also runs a ‘mini-hotel’ in the same 120-year-old adobe workers’ cottage as the winery, pictured above and below by Ridgway who took all these photographs. It looks rather fun.
Sensibly, or perhaps fortuitously, he decided to focus on grape varieties that were a bit unusual for Chile: ‘We make a Rhône blend of GSM plus a bit of Roussanne, one of the very few Sangioveses from Chile, an incredibly rare Colchagua País from 150-year-old, dry-farmed vines (there are only around 50–60 hectares [c 120–150 acres] of old-vine País vineyards in Colchagua v 10,000+ hectares further south in Maule, Itata and Bío-Bío.) And we also have a Cinsault blend (Cinsault/País/Marsanne/Roussanne – quite literally the first Cinsault from Colchagua, as we were the only producer in this valley of the variety when we first planted it back in 2017. (I always wanted it for our Rhône blend but it was never planted in Colchagua before, only in Itata. We are getting really positive results).’ Below, Ridgway with his precious old País.
Presumably knowing he has a UK importer of four of his small-lot wines in the form of Condor Wines, he sent me seven wines over three vintages last September (Tam had tasted one back in 2022 and liked it, and not just because of its super-punning name, Cold Shower Wines, Mission: Impaissible’). I was impressed by the sincerity of them all – see my tasting notes – and gave them all either 16.5 or 17. Ridgway prioritises fruit and approachability over oak and uses no new barrels.
The one that I thought stood out was the Sangiovese, in both 2022 and 2023. Really impressive non-Tuscan Sangioveses are rather thin on the ground but these were charming and ‘only’ 13.5% alcohol. The vines went into the ground as ‘a bit of a left-field choice’ in 2018, and 2021 was the first vintage. According to Ridgway, ‘it’s been a bit of a star since its first vintage in 2021 and tends to sell out pretty quickly’.
Here’s my tasting note on the 2023:
Transparent shaded garnet. Obviously varietal on the nose. A little more concentrated on the palate than many a Tuscan Sangiovese but delicately, thoughtfully balanced. In Chile this must be delightfully unusual. Pure fruit with an impressively vibrant finish. Really pure and gentle. All these reds from La Despensa have a signature of purity, approachability and freshness. I especially like the tanginess on the end of this one, so it’s a tad more refreshing than the Cinsault- and País-informed Pool Blend/Piscina. This is arguably the most distinctive of these current La Despensa reds. 17/20 Drink 2025–2030
And on the 2022:
Aged in Flextank and used barrels.
Vibrant, shaded light ruby. Rich Sangiovese flavours but with much more undertow and so much ripe fruit that the natural acidity and tang of the variety is hardly evident. A lovely wine with a pungent top note of liquorice. Extremely satisfying for drinking with or without food. Long. 17/20 Drink 2024–2029
The 2022, with a pH of 3.5 and aged in Flextank and old oak, is the vintage that’s currently easiest to find. It’s £19.95 at Evington’s of Leicester and £21.50 at Talking Wines of Cirencester. According to Condor Wines, the 2022 is also available from Auriol Wines, Eynsham Cellars, Lancaster Wine Company, Old Butcher’s Wine Cellar, South Downs Cellars, Butler’s Wine Cellar and Vineyards of Sherborne. They say that the 2023 is already with Connollys, Cork of the North, Eynsham Cellars, Lancaster Wine Company, Old Butcher’s Wine Cellar, Talking Wines and The Malmesbury Wine Co.
In the US La Despensa wines are imported by Kysela Père et Fils, and Timeless Wines of Middletown, Virginia, are selling the 2022 for $30. La Despensa wines are also exported to Hong Kong, Sweden and Canada.
And here’s photographer Ridgway with the light in the right place:
It might be fun to show this Sangiovese to a Tuscan friend.
Find this wine
See also my recent collection of reviews of Sangiovese-based Chianti Classicos.
