Pedro Parra is highly respected within the global wine industry. As a renowned soil and vineyard mapping expert with a PhD in terroir, he has been instrumental in transforming the vineyards of many well-known wineries in the Americas and Europe over the past 18 years (many of which are in our portfolio). Great wines start with a great site; few can coax greatness out of a vineyard like Pedro Parra.
In 2013, with his consultancy career firmly established, Pedro embarked on an eponymous winemaking project in Chile’s Itata winemaking region. In the decade since, through lots of trial and error, his wines have become some of Chile’s most enticing, innovative, and sought-after.
It was a pleasure to speak with Pedro over Zoom about his fascinating career, discovering more about his work as a terroir consultant, the magic of Itata's vines and, of course, how his deep love of jazz connects him to wine.
For more information about purchasing Pedro Parra's wines, please contact your Account Manager. Not yet a customer? Contact Us to discuss opening an account.
How do you define terroir?
To me, terroir is about space and energy. Everything from nature has energy, a vibrato, which creates a sound. Some sounds are better than others, and some are more difficult to comprehend. My approach is to simply understand the sound and energy of the site and communicate that to the winemakers. So, terroir is energy to me.
Terroir isn’t just about wine, either. Here in Itata, we have tomatoes grown on granitic red soils and tomatoes grown on black basalt soils. They are the same variety, but they taste entirely different. Those from the black soils, the basalt, remind me of being on Mt Etna. The tomatoes are incredible. They are some of the best in the world because they are sweet, soft and juicy. Then, when you move to granite, the tomatoes are more acidic and harsher, with a greener profile. It's not the same sensation. Interestingly, for wine, granite works incredibly well because what you look for with tomatoes is the opposite for grapes. So, terroir relates to everything. It's fascinating.
When did you first begin applying your knowledge practically in vineyards?
From day one, really. My PhD was, in part, paid for by the French government, but it was also paid for by a Chilean wine company. The latter wasn’t interested in understanding a large-scale terroir approach. They wanted to drill down into the details to improve their wine. They had some understanding of their vineyards but wanted to go further. So, I could take a practical and pragmatic approach from the start. That was back in the early 2000s. People were looking at vineyards on a macro scale in areas like the Northern Rhône and Champagne, but having such a detailed approach to terroir was unheard of. Mine was the first PhD at the time to do research like this. It changed my life.
Working specifically on one site and tasting the changes and results is pretty amazing, especially now as a wine lover. There aren’t many other instances where you can enjoy a glass of your labour with friends and experience that difference. That is what made me a wine lover; I wasn’t one at the beginning. I quickly became part of this world full of culture, defined by food, wine and travel. I fell in love with wine little by little.
I think that was a really important turning point in my career because the difference between myself and other people working around the world is that my job is for wine. It's not for soil, not for geology; it's wine. Wine is my language. I communicate through wine. That's how I ended up in wine because, at the end of the day, it's my language.
To succeed, I had to try many wines, travel a lot, and pay attention to small differences. My passion for wine drives my career.
How do you go about assessing the terroir of a site?
When assessing a site, you have to prioritise which parameters have the most influence, and it takes experience to do this. In the beginning, when you start, you will see 25 different parameters and have to work through them all to distinguish which are most impactful. Today, the process is faster, and a lot of that comes from working with the people who work in the vineyard. The number one thing is that you need to listen to those people.
Geology is, of course, important, but no one knows the vineyards better than the people who work them. You need to understand the client, understand what their tastes are, drink wines with them and understand the goals of the project. You need to observe the terroir and the winery, where you may end up tasting 50 wines with the client, to analyse what’s good and what’s not and where improvements could be made.
You then have to change your parameters for different countries and regions because none of them are the same. You need to adjust, and being able to do so is what makes a good consultant. It’s all taken a lot of experience. The first ten years of my career were very different to the second ten years.
It’s interesting to hear you talk about your work and terroir like this because Alberto Antonini has said that working with you is like having a ‘translator’ for the soil. He and the growers he works with may know that certain areas in a vineyard achieve certain results, but it wasn’t until you began collaborating that he could understand the why. It’s a human understanding of site.
Alberto is the most important mentor I’ve had in my career. We started collaborating in 2006/2007 and have travelled the world together. I know him very well. I know his tastes and how they’ve changed over the years. We are close friends, but I’ve often said to people that Alberto is also a bit like my manager. I can be wild and irresponsible, quite direct and overly honest. He is much more prudent and much better at dealing with people and creating relationships. He’s good at explaining what we do.
I’ve learnt a lot from him, especially in how to structure my business. I've worked with a lot of bigger clients, but now I like to work with small, artisanal producers. I also keep one or two spots open for the kind of people and vineyards I just really want to work with. When that happens, I don’t care about the money. They can pay me 50% fees and 50% wine. I actually have three clients who are 100% wine, one being Comando G. My cellar of Comando G wines is probably the best in the world, and I am very happy with that! What they do with Garnacha on granite in Sierra de Gredos has taught me a lot about my own wines in Itata. It’s an education I can only get in one specific place with very specific people. Plus, it now goes both ways too. Dani and Fernando are actually arriving here on Monday to help press my wines with me. It's a wonderful friendship and sharing of ideas!
One key thing you do post-site assessment is to match optimal grape varieties to a site. How do you do this?
Again, it’s all about experience. Looking at key regions, you learn some of the basics by observation. In the Rhône, you can see that Syrah grown on granite works well, so you know they are linked. You can read about this in a book but only truly understand when you travel to the vineyards and wineries.
For example, at Château Lafite in 2005, the vines in some areas had grown through the sandy granite layer and would soon reach limestone. The winemaker told me he didn’t like the wines it was making, and when I asked why, he got me to try them. Then, I immediately understood. The limestone brings something to Cabernet that isn’t pleasant. This then begins to make sense because Cabernet is rarely grown in Saint-Émilion, which has fantastic limestone soils. Instead, Merlot is prevalent, so you understand that these two are suited. From there, you can dig into the ground and analyse the soil to see how it all works. It's been a lot of trial and error, a lot of travelling and tasting.
What made you decide to transition into making your own wines?
When you spend time with great winemakers, and have an honest passion for wine, you pay attention. You learn so much, and eventually have a lot of information in your head about what they do!
There came a point when people asked me why I didn’t make my own wines. It was a good question. Why didn’t I? I understand terroir, I have worked hard to develop my palate, and I have worked with many of the world's best winemakers. These are now some of my great friends, and they have been so generous with offering advice, not just for winemaking but on the market and helping me make business connections for export. Winemaking was a logical next step.
I’ve found that I am a better consultant now that I make my own wine. It’s given me an understanding of my client’s businesses that I didn’t have before because now I have experienced it first hand. I understand the realities of what they’re doing and what’s feasible within their business model.
Once you made that decision, what was your next step?
If I ever made wine, I knew I’d want to do small, artisanal production. To do this, you need to pick the terroir very carefully because if you don’t have good terroir, it’ll be impossible to make and sell great wine. I chose Itata for this.
If you asked me if I could make the wines I like anywhere else in Chile, the honest answer would be no. I’ve been lucky to begin winemaking later in my career after working across the country and getting to know its vineyards. There are many places making good wine in Chile, but not wines that I personally enjoy drinking, unlike in Itata.
Everyone has their own personal taste, and in my case, this was influenced by Burgundy. The only place I found in Chile that makes wines like this is Itata. It took me a long time to get this right. Initially, I wasn’t convinced I was doing the right thing, but I persevered and worked the land, and now I am very convinced. I am very happy with the wines I am making now. I’m so glad that I decided to invest in Itata.
What makes Itata so special?
There is nothing else like Itata in Chile or Argentina. Itata is like a country in itself. It’s a place similar to parts of Galicia or Sierra de Gredos in Spain, Morgon in Beaujolais, or the Swartland in South Africa. Those places are almost floating in space. They’re such unique regions in their countries. They have so much soul and energy, and Itata is the same. They are also frontiers: places that may be more difficult for the market to understand at first because they offer something so different. It’s funny, even 10 years ago, when you learnt about Chilean wines, you’d never learn about Itata.
Itata is an incredible place. It’s coastal and mountainous, with granitic soils. The vines are ungrafted and dry farmed; one of very few places in the world to have this combination in an appellation. It’s a windy place with a lot of airflow in the vines, so you can grow your grapes with minimal intervention due to very low disease pressure. If you work well and carefully, you also don’t need to use any insecticides or herbicides. The land is such that you can only work the soil with a horse, not a tractor, which is also better for soil health. So, it is a really natural place. It's a paradise!
By the time the grapes get to the winery, they are perfect, which means we can take a very low-intervention approach. The wines are natural in the best way. It’s not that I use less sulphur because I’m trying to be ‘cool’; I use less sulphur because the grapes are excellent. I never brand myself as a natural winemaker, though. It’s not a term I like, but I believe in the system of making good wines as naturally as possible.
I am very pleased to be part of this new generation in Itata that cherishes and preserves its old vineyards. We are at the beginning of a new chapter in the region's history. There is amazing energy and a trend towards making precise, site-specific wines. It’s hard to convince the market that this new direction and style is right, but we are making it happen. It may take two years, five years, ten years, or twenty years, but it's inevitable. We are all travelling a lot with our wines, presenting them to sommeliers and wine professionals, and every time we do, people are impressed. We are opening the door for the next generation.
You use the Burgundian Cru system to classify your vineyards. How do you approach this?
This classification terminology is something people can understand clearly, especially in the Sommelier community. It also makes sense to me as my career started in Burgundy. It’s very personal.
I approach it by saying that vineyards, which are 1er Cru, are incredible sites, but not atomic. The Grand Cru are the best I have, making wines with the most ageing potential. However, the Grand Crus will always be better in the future, so those are premature wines, whereas the 1er Cru are approachable and ready to drink earlier.
Speaking about the Cru wines, we would be remiss not to talk about your love of music. You named your Cru wines after famous jazz musicians. How do you feel jazz and wine relate together?
When I was younger, I used to play the saxophone and my teacher used certain words to describe the sound I should try to achieve: grip, tension, complexity. Those words came back again when I worked in Burgundy. People were describing wine the same way. Little by little, I began to understand that the two were connected.
Great wines come from great terroir and a great interpretation of that terroir. This creates something that few wines can have, which is its own sound. It’s a bit like watching American Idol, with 2000 contestants who can all sing, but only one has what it takes to ‘make it’. It’s not about being able to sing well; it’s about having a sound. You can often recognise it immediately because there are imperfections in the sound that make it distinctive. Great jazz is about having a sound, and so is great wine. Those unique ‘imperfections’ that make it taste unlike anything else come from great terroir and great interpretation through the winemaking, in my opinion. The minerality, acidity, tension, complexity, texture, grip … it’s all part of the sound. So, for me, wine and jazz make sense together. They have the same language.
For more information about purchasing Pedro Parra's wines, please contact your Account Manager. Not yet a customer? Contact Us to discuss opening an account.