The Soccer Player & the Ancient Vines

The story of Gustavo Riffo begins not with wine, but with soccer. A gifted athlete growing up in Portezuelo, a warm and dry village in the central Itata Valley, Gustavo was on his way to a professional football career and had little interest in the family vineyards that surrounded him. His parents wanted him to study agronomy, but at the time he wanted a different life — one measured in goals and stadiums, not harvests and hectolitres. The family had made wine here for generations, taking their grapes to the local cooperative, farming vines and orchards in an environment where manual labour and the rhythm of the seasons were simply part of existence. Wine was the background, not the dream.

Everything changed when he was 18. After working a harvest with the family, Gustavo's perspective shifted. He took a growing interest in wine, grape-growing, and agriculture — a curiosity that led to formal studies and harvests abroad. After receiving a government grant to study winemaking and farming, he spent a harvest with Benziger Family Winery in Sonoma, one of California's pioneers of biodynamic farming. From there, he worked in the Jura in France, in Italy, and in Priorat in Spain. These experiences were formative: he saw how organic and biodynamic approaches could transform not just the wine but the land itself, and he returned to Portezuelo with a conviction that the family's vineyards could be something more than they had been.

Converting to organics was a struggle and a source of conflict with the family, but they started the process in 2005. At the same time, Gustavo began making his own wines from selected plots that he farmed himself, applying biodynamic treatments and experimenting with methods his ancestors would have recognised — destemming by hand, fermenting with indigenous yeasts, and resting the wine in tank rather than manipulating it in the cellar. The family label, Lomas de Llahuen, continued to honour the traditional Pipeño of the region: simple, honest, delicious wines made from old vines and bottled in litre containers. Gustavo's personal line became the laboratory — a place for old clay amphoras, long skin contact, and lower sulfur. Two projects, one philosophy: respect the vine, trust the ferment, and let Itata speak.

Today, Gustavo farms approximately 5 hectares of the family's much larger vineyards, working with vines that are dry-farmed, unirrigated, and densely planted on granitic clay-loam soils. Some of the País vines are roughly 200 years old, own-rooted survivors of phylloxera-free Chile, producing tiny quantities of concentrated fruit. The Moscatel de Alejandría vines are around 70 to 80 years old, their roots deep in the granite subsoil that gives the wines their mineral backbone and floral intensity. The farming is certified organic, with biodynamic preparations on the plots he manages personally. All vineyard work is done by hand. The goal is not volume but voice — grapes that carry the full fingerprint of Itata's ancient granitic soils, essential for the precise, low-intervention winemaking that defines both projects.

The guiding philosophy of Gustavo Riffo is expressed in three words: tradition, experimentation, and respect. He is committed to winemaking that expresses each parcel distinctly — not through heavy extraction or new oak, but through patient observation, indigenous yeasts, and minimal cellar intervention. His approach is not a rejection of modernity but a deepening of tradition: he destems by hand, ferments with native yeasts, and rests his wines in tank, used barrels, or old clay amphoras to allow the terroir to speak without masking. The result is a portfolio that is typified by freshness, minerality, and drinkability — wines that are as precise as they are approachable, as ancient as they are alive.

The methodology is deliberately traditional and fundamentally Itata. For the Lomas de Llahuen Pipeño wines, all grapes are hand-harvested and destemmed, then macerated on their skins during a roughly two-week fermentation in stainless steel tanks. The wines are gently pressed, the gross lees settle out after 40 days, and then the wine rests in tank for 11 months before bottling. This is the classic Pipeño method — simple, honest, and unadorned. For the Desorden cuvées, the process is similar but with longer skin contact of around 15 days, creating more texture and complexity while maintaining the freshness that defines the house style. The sulfur additions are minimal, and overall sulfur quantities are lower than conventional Chilean wines.

The personal line is where Gustavo pushes boundaries. A Pelo — 100% Moscatel d'Alexandria from 80-year-old own-rooted vines — is destemmed and fermented in old clay amphora with maceration on the skins for 8 to 12 months, producing an amber, deeply textured orange wine that captures the floral and mineral soul of Moscatel in a way that stainless steel cannot. Vuelta E' Mano Garnacha comes from a single parcel called San Juan de Dios, where 15-year-old vines face north at 120 metres elevation; the grapes are destemmed and macerated for 15 days in a covered Raulí lagar with native yeasts, then pressed to a used barrel to rest before bottling. These experiments are not departures from tradition but extensions of it — the same indigenous yeasts, the same hand work, the same patience, but with vessels that add new dimensions to the ancient voice of the vines.

The cellar is not a technological facility; it is a family space — a small winery where stainless steel tanks sit alongside old clay amphoras and used barrels, where Gustavo and his family do the work. There is no consultant recommending corrective enzymes, no recipe that overrides the vintage, no pressure to produce industrial wines or heavy, extracted blockbusters. There is only the family, the granitic soils, the ancient vines, and the patience to let each parcel take the time it needs. The result is a portfolio of wines that are honest, precise, and alive — wines that have earned a place on the wine lists of discerning restaurants and shops from New York to Copenhagen. As one importer noted, Gustavo's wines are party-friendly and soulful — a rare combination that speaks to the heart of what natural wine can be.

To understand Gustavo Riffo, one must understand that he is not merely a winemaker; he is a bridge between two worlds — the world of the professional athlete he almost became, and the world of the farmer he chose to be. The identity of the project is defined by this duality: the discipline, focus, and physical stamina of the soccer player, applied to the patient, intuitive work of the vigneron. The identity is also defined by the two projects — Lomas de Llahuen, the family label that honours the Pipeño tradition of his ancestors, and the Gustavo Riffo line, the laboratory where he experiments with amphoras, long skin contact, and lower sulfur. The estate is not a monoculture; it is a home. The result is a portfolio of wines that are not merely products but expressions of a place and a family — each bottle a testament to the conviction that wine should be honest, terroir-driven, and joyful.

The identity is also defined by conflict and conversion — the struggle with his family to convert to organic farming in 2005, the years of proving that dry-farmed, unirrigated old vines could produce better wine than chemically assisted young ones, and the slow building of trust that allowed the family to embrace a new way. Gustavo is deeply involved in the community of Portezuelo and the broader Itata natural wine scene. He supports young producers and the revival of the Pipeño tradition. The family has made wine here for generations, and Gustavo's work is both a continuation and a revolution — the same vines, the same granitic soils, but a new consciousness about what those vines can express when farmed with respect and patience.

The identity is also defined by refusal — the refusal to irrigate, the refusal to use synthetic chemicals, the refusal to chase the industrial wine model of the Central Valley, and the refusal to treat wine as a commodity rather than an agricultural product. Gustavo has kept his range modest and focused, resisting the pressure to expand into international varieties or heavy, extracted styles. He has reduced his sulfur use overall. He has moved from conventional farming to organic to biodynamic treatments. But he has never abandoned the traditions that make Itata what it is: the ancient País, the fragrant Moscatel, the honest Pipeño bottled in litres. The wines reflect this intentionality: they are not radical, not rustic, not naive. They are precise, traditional, and deeply considered — the product of an athlete's discipline and a farmer's love of his land converging on 5 hectares of granitic clay-loam.

The future of Gustavo Riffo is tied to the continued health of his 5 hectares of organic and biodynamically treated vines, the deepening of biodynamic practices, and the gradual expansion of the amphora and experimental program. Gustavo is eager to continue — to explore new expressions of the Itata terroir, to deepen his understanding of the granitic soils, and to obtain ever more precise, elegant, and terroir-driven expressions from the fruit of his own ancient vines. The Pipeño will continue to be the honest ambassador, A Pelo the amphora masterpiece, and the Desorden cuvées the beautiful chaos of the field blend. He does not chase trends; he chases the truth of his land, and he has the patience to let that truth speak in its own voice — a voice that is Itata-born, Portezuelo-rooted, and unmistakably Riffo.

In an age of increasing industrialisation in wine — of global varieties, engineered yeasts, and corporate consolidation — Gustavo Riffo stands as a compelling alternative, not because he rejects modernity but because he has embraced a deeper modernity: one that values organic farming over chemical convenience, biodynamic treatments over synthetic inputs, dry-farming over irrigation, hand harvest over mechanical efficiency, indigenous yeasts over inoculation, old clay amphoras over new oak intrusion, minimal sulfur over heavy dosing, traditional Pipeño over industrial standardisation, 200-year-old own-rooted vines over young grafted plantations, and the specific voice of Itata's granitic soils over the standardised replication of a global style. Gustavo Riffo is not merely making wine; he is proving that a former soccer player can become the voice of ancient vines, that 5 hectares of granitic clay-loam can produce wines of international recognition, that a litre bottle of País can possess the most profound identity, and that the simplest philosophy — listen to the vines, and let them speak — is often the most profound. From the first organic conversion in 2005 to the wines of today: all united in one family, one synthesis, one unanswerable argument for the possibility of authentic, organic, hand-made, passionately honest wine from the granite heart of Itata.