The Agronomists & the Raulí Pipa

The story of Tinto de Rulo is a story of friendship and conviction — of three agronomists who decided that the future of Chilean wine lay not in the irrigated valleys of the north, but in the forgotten, dry-farmed vineyards of the south. Claudio Contreras, Jaime Pereira, and Mauricio González met as students and colleagues, bound by a shared belief that wine should be made at a human scale, with minimal intervention, and in partnership with the small growers who had preserved Chile's oldest vines. In 2013, they founded Tinto de Rulo in Los Ángeles, in the Bío Bío Region, roughly 500 kilometres south of Santiago — deep in the secano interior, the rain-fed interior where irrigation is unknown and vines have survived for generations on rainfall alone.

The name Tinto de Rulo literally translates to "Red from Curls" — a reference that does not explain much in English, but in Chile it evokes the way these grapes grow on old bush vines with no trellising system, curling freely across the rolling hills. The name is a declaration of identity: this is wine from vines that have never been trained, never been irrigated, and never been industrialised. The trio work in unison, letting the fruit do all the talking, pursuing the discovery of individual character revealed by each vineyard. They are adamant: make wine with no chemical additions and no great deal of hands-on manipulation. The result is not merely a brand; it is a collective act of agricultural archaeology.

Today, the project is led by Claudio Contreras and Jaime Pereira, who continue to push the brand forward. Mauricio González was part of the founding trio but the operational partnership has settled into the hands of Claudio and Jaime — both agronomists, both winemakers, both deeply committed to the small-grower model. They are part of Chileno Sur, an association of southern Chilean natural wine producers, and their wines now reach markets across the world. Their labels — unforgettable, extreme in colour — have become a signature of the new Chilean natural wine movement, as recognisable in Brooklyn as they are in Santiago.

From the beginning, the philosophy was clear: work only with organic vineyards established at least a century ago; buy grapes from small growers rather than owning vast estates; vinify with ancestral techniques; and let the vineyard speak without correction. The estate is not a monoculture; it is a network of relationships — with growers in Bío Bío, Maule, and Itata who have preserved their vines through decades of industrial neglect because they believed, stubbornly and quietly, that these old varieties were worth protecting. Tinto de Rulo is the amplifier for that belief.

The guiding philosophy of Tinto de Rulo is expressed in three words: ancestral, minimal, and honest. Claudio, Jaime, and Mauricio are committed to winemaking that emulates the pre-industrial traditions of southern Chile — not through nostalgia, but through conviction that these techniques produce wines of greater purity and terroir expression. Their approach is not a rejection of modernity but a rejection of the industrial model that has dominated Chilean wine: no irrigation, no chemicals, no commercial yeasts, no new oak, and no cosmetic correction. The result is a portfolio that is typified by juiciness, freshness, and rustic charm — wines that are as approachable as they are thought-provoking, as ancient in technique as they are alive in the glass.

The methodology is deliberately ancestral and fundamentally southern Chilean. All grapes are hand-harvested and manually de-stemmed — a slow, labour-intensive process that preserves the integrity of the berries and avoids the harshness of mechanical crushers. The grapes are then deposited into old raulí wood lagares and clay amphorae (tinajas de greda) for fermentation. Raulí (Nothofagus alpina) is a native Chilean beechwood that was used for winemaking vessels long before French oak became fashionable. The pipa — a large-format raulí vat — was traditionally used to sell wine directly to the local population, poured into refillable five-litre bottles known as garrafas or demijohns. This is how the name Pipeño came about: wine from the pipa, the people's wine.

Fermentation is spontaneous and natural, with no addition of commercial yeasts. The process lasts approximately three weeks, with daily manual punch-downs (pisoneos) and careful monitoring of temperature and density to ensure a correct process. The wines are then aged for roughly one year before bottling: the varietal line (Tinto de Rulo) in old oak barrels that have been used more than ten times, and the Pipeño line exclusively in restored raulí pipas. There is no chaptalisation, no fining, no filtration on most cuvées, and sulfur is kept to an absolute minimum. The alcohol levels are modest — typically 10.5% to 13% — reflecting the cool climate and the refusal to chase ripeness for power.

The cellar is not a technological facility; it is a modest workshop in Los Ángeles where Claudio and Jaime do the work. There is no consultant recommending corrective enzymes, no recipe that overrides the vintage, no pressure to produce heavy, extracted blockbusters. There is only the agronomist, the raulí wood, the clay amphora, and the patience to let each vineyard take the time it needs. The result is a portfolio of wines that are honest, precise, and alive — wines that have earned 95 points from Descorchados, the title of Best País 2019, and Revelation Winery 2017, and that have found their way onto the lists of natural wine bars from London to Tokyo. These are wines that taste of the secano: granitic, rustic, and deeply human.

To understand Tinto de Rulo, one must understand that it is not merely a winery; it is a collective act of agricultural archaeology, a partnership with small growers, and a proof that three agronomists can become the voice of the secano interior. The identity of the project is defined by the founders — Claudio Contreras and Jaime Pereira, who have pushed the brand into international markets while remaining rooted in the small-grower model; and Mauricio González, who was part of the founding dream. The identity is also defined by the raulí pipa — the large-format native beechwood vat that is both a winemaking vessel and a symbol of pre-industrial Chilean culture. The estate is not a monoculture; it is a network of relationships across Bío Bío, Maule, and Itata. The result is a portfolio of wines that are not merely products but expressions of a place and a community — each bottle a testament to the conviction that wine should be honest, fresh, and deeply connected to the people who produce it.

The identity is also defined by community — Tinto de Rulo's membership in Chileno Sur, the association of southern Chilean natural wine producers that includes Roberto Henríquez, Viña Zaranda, and other key figures of the movement. The estate works closely with small winegrowers, using only grapes from organic vineyards established at least a century ago, and aims to bring out the character of each place, emphasising minimal intervention in order to showcase all the vineyard's characteristics in the bottle. The labels — unforgettable, extreme in colour — have become a signature of the new Chilean natural wine movement, as recognisable in Brooklyn as they are in Santiago. The estate exports to multiple countries, yet the heart of the project remains the small grower in Yumbel, the old vine in Maule, and the raulí pipa in Los Ángeles.

The identity is also defined by refusal — the refusal to own vast estates when small growers need partners, the refusal to irrigate when rain is enough, the refusal to use chemicals when organic farming has worked for generations, the refusal to use machines when hands are available, and the refusal to treat wine as a commodity rather than a cultural expression. Claudio and Jaime have kept the range focused and modest, producing only a handful of cuvées that reflect the varieties the secano has preserved for centuries: País, Malbec, Carignan, Cinsault, Moscatel. They have not planted Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay. They have not built a tasting room that resembles a spaceship. They have simply farmed, harvested, de-stemmed by hand, and let the wines speak. The wines reflect this intentionality: they are not radical, not rustic, not naive. They are precise, traditional, and deeply considered — the product of an agronomist's training and a farmer's love of the secano converging on a small cellar in Los Ángeles.

The future of Tinto de Rulo is tied to the continued health of its network of old, dry-farmed, organic vineyards, the deepening of its ancestral techniques, and the continued partnership with the small growers of Bío Bío, Maule, and Itata. Claudio and Jaime are eager to explore new expressions of the secano terroir, to restore more raulí pipas, and to obtain ever more precise, elegant, and terroir-driven expressions from the fruit of their own granitic soils. The Pipeño will continue to be the soul of the estate, the País the flagship, and the Blanco de Rulo the aromatic pioneer. They do not chase trends; they chase the truth of their land, and they have the patience to let that truth speak in its own voice — a voice that is secano-born, granite-rooted, and unmistakably Tinto de Rulo.

In an age of increasing industrialisation in wine — of global varieties, engineered yeasts, and corporate consolidation — Tinto de Rulo stands as a compelling alternative, not because it rejects modernity but because it has embraced a deeper modernity: one that values organic farming over chemical convenience, dry farming over irrigation, small growers over corporate estates, hand harvesting over mechanical efficiency, manual de-stemming over industrial crushers, indigenous yeasts over inoculation, raulí pipas over new oak intrusion, clay amphorae over stainless steel anonymity, minimal sulfur over heavy dosing, ancestral techniques over technological dependency, local varieties over global monoculture, and the specific voice of the secano's granite and rain over the standardised replication of a global style. Claudio Contreras and Jaime Pereira are not merely making wine; they are proving that three agronomists can become the voice of a region, that a small cellar in Los Ángeles can produce wines of international recognition, that a wine aged in a raulí pipa can possess the most profound identity, and that the simplest philosophy — vino artesanal hecho a escala humana — is often the most profound. From the first vintage in 2013 to the wines of today: all united in one friendship, one synthesis, one unanswerable argument for the possibility of authentic, organic, hand-made, passionately honest wine from the granite heart of southern Chile.