Maule Valley
Maule Valley is limited northward by the Curicó Valley and south by the Biobío region, where the last to the second southern viticultural region begins. The Maule Valley belongs to the Central Valley viticultural region and it was one of the first areas where vines were planted and its viticulture history stretches back to the start of the Spanish Crown colonisation.
The Maule Valley viticultural region is geographically located in the Maule administrative region extending between 34º 41′ and 36º 33’ latitude south. The Maule Valley is limited to the north by the Curicó viticultural valley and south by the Bío-Bío administrative region, where the southern vine-growing Region begins. The Maule Valley viticultural region is located in the zone of the Central Valley of Chile, 260 kilometres South of Santiago within the Maule administrative region and its capital is Talca. Vine culture is concentrated mainly in the Central Valley and the piedmont of the Coastal Range. Irrigated vineyards predominate, but dryland farming also takes place towards Coastal Range sector.
Denomination of Origin: Maule
Region: Central Valley
Sub-Region: Maule
Includes Zones: Claro, Loncomilla, Tutuvén
Complementary Areas: Entre Cordilleras, Andes
Soils
In this zone the Andes are characterised by the presence of volcanoes that define the boundaries of the sunken basin landscape and are no higher than the 4,000 m.a.s.l. except for the Peteroa volcano, 4.090 metres high, followed by the Descabezado Grande 3,830 metres high; there are also others such as the Descabezado Chico and Quizapu. Volcanic activity and glacial action have generated small cordilleran lakes, such as the Laguna del Maule 3,000 m.a.s.l. in the eastern basin of that river. Between the precordillera and the Coastal Range we find the Longitudinal Valley, which is widest (40 kilometres) at Linares and has a length of 170 kilometres. Its relief is flat and interrupted by many rivers that cross it from East to West.
However, towards the centre and South of the region a precordilleran relief of 400 to 1,000 m.a.s.l. appears between the sunken basin and the Andes. This relief, which masks the sunken basin, is known as “La Montaña”. The Coastal Range is low (between 300 and 700 m.a.s.l.) with soft hills framing basins and valleys. This range is divided into two chains, one of these originates the Cauquenes basin (to the South of the region), which has special microclimatic conditions. Heights do not exceed the 900 m.a.s.l. Seafront plains are well developed, with terraces of up to the 200 m.a.s.l. and about five kilometres wide interrupted by rivers that flow into the sea. There are wide beaches, such as Constitución and dunes in the zone of Putú, Chanco, and Curanipe. In the western slope of the Coastal Range, as well as in the zones immediately north of it, the soils are well evolved from granitic rocks, with clay content in depth. In the sector near the coast the soils derive from high marine terraces, are reddish brown in colour and their relief is flat or with soft slopes. Soils that can reverse due to dilatation and contraction of the clays and whose origin is the deposit of fine sediments in lacustrine conditions are found near the city of Parral.
In the Central Valley, between the Coastal Range and the Andes, we find alluvial soils of moderate development. Most of the irrigated lands are sited in these soils of the Maule viticultural region. In the precordillera and the sectors of stronger relief of the Andes we find coarse-grained soils derived from volcanic accumulation.
Climate
The region of the Maule valley is characterised, as other regions of the Central Valley of Chile, by a temperate climate with wide differences between the coast and its inland valleys. The orographic conditions of the region do not allow winds from the ocean to enter the sunken basin; this causes a wide thermal range, different to what occurs on the coast, where sea fogs are present practically during the whole year. The difference between the coast and the sunken basin is significant, and shows in humidity, thermal variation and rainfall. The basin of Cauquenes, South of the region, shows special microclimatic conditions. The rains are more abundant as the territory continues towards the South increasing the diversity and density of the vegetation and feeding rivers of greater volume. The Maule viticultural region is influenced by the hydrographic system of the river Maule, which is born in the Andes and has as tributaries in its higher course the Puelche, Los Cipreses, Claro and Melado rivers. It has also the Loncomilla River as affluent in the sunken basin, and enters the sea near the city of Constitución.