Curicó Valley
Curicó Valley viticultural region is located between 34º41' and 36º33’ latitude south and comprises the Teno Valley and the Lontué Valley. The Curicó Valley is within the Central Valley (sunken basin), 200 kilometres south of Santiago and its centre is the city of Curicó.
The Curicó Valley viticultural region is located within the Maule administrative region extending between 34º41′ and 36º33’ latitude south. The Curicó Valley comprises the Teno Valley and the Lontué Valley. Its northern boundary is the Rapel Valley, which is included in the Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins administrative region, and its boundary to the South is the Maule viticultural valley. The Curicó Valley is within the Central Valley (sunken basin) of Chile, 200 kilometres south of Santiago and its centre is the city of Curicó. The Curicó valley region comprises the Teno valley zone with the Rauco and Romeral areas, and the Lontué valley zone with the Molina and Sagrada Familia areas.
Denomination of Origin: Curicó
Region: Central Valley
Sub-Region: Curicó
Includes zones: Teno, Lontué
Complementary Areas: Entre-Cordilleras, Andes
Soils
This viticultural region is located in a landscape structured basically by three well-defined strips; the piedmont of the Andes, the sunken basin (Central Valley), where the main agricultural activities take place, mostly viticulture, and the Coastal Range, with coastal valleys and river estuaries. In the coastal area soils are derived from high marine terraces; they are reddish-brown and their relief is flat or with soft slopes. In the Central Valley zone, between the Coastal Range and the Andes, we find alluvial soils of moderate development. Most of the irrigated lands of the Curicó viticultural region belong to this type of soil. In the precordillera and the sectors of stronger relief of the Andes there are coarse-grained soils deriving from volcanic accumulation. In the precordillera, facing the city of Curicó, we find soils, which have derived from volcanic ashes, known as “trumaos”. These are very good soils, deep, with high organic matter content and great moisture retention capacity.
Climate
The region of the Curicó valley is characterised, as other regions of the Central Valley of Chile, by a subhumid Mediterranean climate with large differences between the coast and the inland valleys. The orographic conditions of the region do not allow winds from the ocean to enter the sunken basin, and a wide thermal range is found in the valley. The Curicó Valley region is influenced by the Mataquito River hydrographic system. The Mataquito River has a mixed flow pattern, its affluents are the Teno and Lontué rivers, and it falls to the sea South of the small lake of Vichuquén. The differences between the coast and the sunken basin are significant, and show in the humidity, the thermal variation and the amount of rainfall. Rains are markedly seasonal in this region, very regular, concentrated strongly in winter and followed by a long dry season.