A midnight tasting in Chile in 2011 was our first encounter with the ‘Fous’ (‘crazy men’) when Alberto Antonini introduced us to Pedro Parra, with whom he works closely at several of South America’s top estates. Pedro now makes wines under his own label but was originally one of the four ‘Fous’, alongside winemakers François Massoc and Paco Leyton, as well as Albert Cussen who looks after the business. The name ‘Clos des Fous’ is an ode to the 12 years Pedro and François spent studying and working in Burgundy, as well as to what their peers describe as their ‘craziness’ in crossing the traditional Chilean vineyard boundaries to source grapes from more extreme conditions further south and east.

The Chardonnay ‘Locura 1’ is sourced from the region of Malleco, one of the southernmost wine-growing sub-regions in Chile. Although once considered too southerly for winemaking, its cool climate conditions and sandy and rocky soils have increasingly attracted top producers looking for excellent acidity and expression in cool-climate grape varieties.

The Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from a single vineyard called ‘Grillos Cantores’ (or ‘singing crickets’) in the Alto Cachapoal, just six kilometres from the Andes mountains. The decaying granite and volcanic rocks present in the soil here provide the resulting wine with a distinct mineral character, soft tannins and good levels of balancing acidity. Perhaps their most original wines are the red blends: ‘Cauquenina’ and ‘Pour Ma Gueule’ (meaning ‘for my gob’). These blends change from vintage to vintage and include varying amounts of Carignan, Malbec, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cinsault, Carmenère and País to achieve a complex, fluid, modern red blend. ‘Cauquenina’ has some degree of oak influence with 20% of the blend going into new oak, whereas ‘Pour Ma Gueule’ has no new oak influence and is meant for drinking young.

The ‘Tocao’ is a mesmerising Malbec sourced from a vineyard planted in 1914 in the southern Bío-Bío Valley, producing fruit with fresh acidity and fine tannins, while the ‘Arenaria’ is made from Pinot Noir grown in Pucalán, located eight kilometres from the sea in Aconcagua Costa. It is highly aromatic with cherry and raspberry notes and an earthy granite character.