how Montes Folly earned its icon status

The very traits which made Montes Folly seem like a mad venture are now lauded as its calling cards. After it secured a top medal at the Global Syrah Masters, db surveys the Chilean icon wine.

Montes may now be a leading light of Chilean fine winemaking, but its early success was far from guaranteed. In 1998, the Chilean wine industry was significantly less bold than it is today, and so when the winery first formulated its benchmark Syrah project, many thought its winemakers were mad.

Instead of gloating when it emerged as a success, the winemakers approached the situation with humour. If it had been mad to attempt it, then that would be proudly displayed on the bottle. Montes Folly was born.

While the accolades – including a recent Master medal at The Global Syrah Masters – are now free-flowing, at the time they seemed far from guaranteed. Yet it is precisely that streak of madness that has driven the success of Montes Folly.

A rare choice of variety

The first folly was to plant a Syrah at all. Although long associated with fine wine in its French homelands, Chilean Syrah scarcely existed before the 1990s. It is a point of contention as to whether it had arrived in the 1800s, but certainly there were no substantial plantings until the mid-1990s.

Fine wine in Chile was dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon at the time. Thus, to select a single site, as co-founder Aurelio Montes did, and earmark it for Syrah was a bold move. It was even bolder to decide not to blend it, but rather to keep the specificity of a single variety from a single site.

According to Montes, however, there was no other way to consider the site. As he recounted in the winery’s history, he and co-founder Douglas Murray realised early on its special potential. “When we planted Syrah I told Douglas, ‘I think that Syrah will be fantastic’ Then after five years I said, ‘Douglas, I have made a mistake, the wine is outstanding.’”

Still, there was a related folly to contend with. Montes already had an icon wine. Montes Alpha M was a much more conventional fine wine, even though the concept in Chile was relatively new. As a blend of Bordeaux varieties, led by Cabernet Sauvignon, it fitted much better with conventional notions of the country’s strengths. To add a Syrah at that high level, the argument went, would surely prove a distraction.

Yet Montes persevered, and Montes Folly now sits among its top creations. Indeed, its most premium bottlings – collectively termed ‘The Divine Collection’ – now numbers five, including a Carmenère alongside its three Cabernet Sauvignon-led expressions. If there was initial scepticism at producing more than one icon wine, it vanished long ago.

Madness in the vineyards

It was not just the concept, however, that tested Montes Folly from the off; it was also the vineyard. Aurelio Montes may have chanced upon his ideal site for Syrah, but he was clearly selecting for potential rather than for ease.

Montes had acquired the Apalta Estate in 1995, a slice of what is now regarded as one of Colchagua Valley’s top terroirs. The Apalta Valley ranges from a flat valley floor to vertiginous slopes, and it is on the very highest of these hills that Montes Folly is made.

With slopes sometimes at a 45° angle, it was a huge effort to clear the site for vines. It continues to require an immense effort to maintain the vineyard; all maintenance, as well as the harvest, must be conducted by hand.

The reward for such labour is a small harvest. Thanks to the area’s poor, granitic soils, limited water supplies and the site’s intense incline, yields are naturally very low. A hectare might produce just three tons, or even less with dry farming.

What it lacks in quantity, however, Montes Folly makes up for in concentration. The small berries are packed with colour and flavour compounds, as well as the ripe tannins that define many of the best Chilean wines. The viticulture may be arduous, but it provides an excellent crop.

This is eventually vinified to best convey its concentration. After rigorous selection in both the vineyard and the winery, the must undergoes cool maceration for careful extraction of tannins. After its vinification, it ages in French oak – 70% of which is new – for 18 months. The winemaking is intensive, certainly, but for such a particular cuvée, it is essential that no corner is cut.

Embracing the folly

The fact that Montes still produces Folly should be evidence enough that it has embraced the cuvée. Yet, reassuringly, the winery has not sanitised Montes Folly, even as it has grown in renown.

Nowhere is that more evident than in the label. The design is by Ralph Steadman, the Welsh illustrator best known for his spiky, ink-splotched illustrations of Hunter S. Thompson’s works.

The collaboration began when Steadman – already well known in the wine world for his illustrations for Oddbins – visited Chile. Rather than present him with another cellar of stainless steel tanks, Murray offered to drive him on a 3,200-kilometre round trip to see the Atacama desert. The unfamiliar landscape, almost lunar with its wide expanses and complex rock formations, inspired Steadman to paint. Years later, Murray saw those desertscapes and asked to use them for Montes Folly.

Even once, with the 2005 vintage, all these paintings had been used, Steadman continued to create new visions of the Chilean landscape to adorn the bottles. It is, in his words, a reaction against the “tyranny of Bordeaux” – a riposte to the hegemonic style of label design.

In fact, Steadman’s masterstroke might be the perfect summary of the wine itself. While the angel – the winery’s enduring symbol – appears on other bottles looking like a renaissance illustration, Steadman brings her firmly into the present. She is tipsy, and perhaps a little flirty: barefoot, one leg flicked up behind her, with a jolt of scarlet on her lips.

It might well be the perfect metaphor for the wine. Heavenly, yes, but you could not deny the dash of madness that goes into Montes Folly.

At the Global Syrah Masters 2025, Montes Folly 2021 secured a Master medal, the highest category available. Patrick Schmitt MW provides his tasting note below:

Montes Folly 2021

Producer: Montes
Region: Colchagua
Country: Chile
Grape variety: 100% Syrah
ABV: 15%
Approx. retail price: £57

A Master-winning Syrah from Montes, this high-end Chilean expression uses grapes from Apalta to yield a rich red of great class. Intense flavours of blackcurrant and dark cherry dominate, complemented by notes of peppercorns and a hint of olive, with dark chocolate and plums coming through on the persistent and finely tannic finish.