Chilean Pisco Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape
ChilePermanent Delegation of Chile to UNESCO
Huasco Valley, Atacama region, Elqui Valley and Limari Valley, Coquimbo region
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Description
Huasco Valley: 28 45 01 S 70 29 28
Elqui Valley: 30 08 53 S 70 29 38W
Limari Valley: 30 57 00 S 70 46 19 W
The Chilean Pisco Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape is a living testimony of over four centuries of continuous winemaking tradition in the Huasco, Elqui and Limari valleys, located in the Chilean regions of Atacama and Coquimbo.
This territory was considered in 1931 as part of the Pisco Designation of Origin area. It stands out for its exceptional geography, framed by mountain ranges that extend in an East-West direction, linking the Andes with the coastal mountain range, as well as its pristine skies, and a semi-arid climate that favors the cultivation of vines.
Since the 16th century, the Spanish populations that settled in these valleys introduced viticulture using European varieties that, over time, gave rise to unique local strains. The landscape of these valleys combines historical, cultural and natural elements, which integrate local communities into a productive model based on cooperatives.
The Pisco crafting tradition is manifested in sustainable agricultural systems, vernacular architecture and distillation techniques that have evolved over the centuries. This cultural landscape reflects the interaction of people and their environment, combining natural conditions and the highest production standards. Today, Chilean Pisco is a symbol of identity and heritage that connects generations and promotes a strong sense of local belonging.
The landscape consists of vineyards clinging on sloping hillsides, scattered wineries, traditional irrigation systems, and small linear towns that are integrated into a geographic environment of ravines and mountains, tinted with the characteristic palette of the vine plantations. In this environment, local communities maintain traditions such as the artisanal production of Pisco, based on knowledge passed down from generation to generation.
The Pisco agrobusiness is based on a production chain that begins with the agricultural phase of growing Pisco grape strains. This stage operates mainly under the cooperative and community models, which encourages collaborative work and sustainability in production, promoting these practices and their sustainability. Currently, Pisco production is supported by 9,232 hectares of vineyards in the hands of 2,000 small vine growers and nearly 35 distilleries, which produce 36 million liters per year. The Chilean Pisco Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape represents a profound connection between local population and its territory. It is the testimony of a historical and traditional process, linked to the distillation of Pisco grapes.
This territory holds not only Pisco vines, but also a rich cultural history that includes architectural traditions, community practices and a deep attachment to the land. Natural elements, such as rock glaciers that supply water for irrigation systems, reinforce the uniqueness of the landscape and underline its relevance in the global context.
Justification of Outstanding Universal Value
The Chilean Pisco Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape, indigenous to these three valleys, meets specific UNESCO criteria as an outstanding example of interaction between nature and man. This site is an evolutionary cultural landscape that demonstrates the integration of agricultural, architectural, and social practices adapted to the conditions of the Elqui, Huasco and Limari Valleys: a semi-arid environment nestled in the Andean foothills.
Rural Heritage
The rural attribute includes vineyards grown on the hillsides, traditional irrigation systems, and sustainable agricultural practices. The grape varieties, such as Muscat of Alexandria and other indigenous varieties, reflect a unique adaptation to this geographic environment. These cultivation systems were introduced by the Spanish population and adapted with local techniques, creating a landscape of inmense value in Latin America.
Urban Heritage
Within the landscape there are linear settlements around roads and planned cities, following the checkerboard layout of Hispanic heritage. The vernacular architecture uses local materials, integrating functionality and aesthetics in one or two-story buildings, adapted to the climatic conditions.
Environmental Heritage
The territory has water resources from rock glaciers, an essential element for traditional irrigation systems. These glaciers, together with semi-arid vegetation and clear skies, make the cultural landscape an exceptional natural environment, where the interaction between nature and culture is evident.
Intangible Heritage
The traditions associated with the production of Pisco, from vine growing to distillation, are a fundamental part of this cultural landscape. The trades of winegrowers, master Pisco crafters and distillers are transmitted from generation to generation, consolidating a rich and distinctive cultural identity. This site is an outstanding example of a living landscape that preserves its active social function. The implementation of cooperative models strengthens community ties and ensures the economic and cultural sustainability of the territory.
Criterion (ii): The cultural landscape reflects a considerable exchange of human values through the introduction and adaptation of European winegrowing practices in America. This process generated a unique production model that combines European and pre-Columbian elements, resulting in a distinctive cultural landscape.
Criterion (iv): The Chilean Pisco Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape is an outstanding example of an ever-evolving landscape adapted to an extreme environment. Vine plantations, irrigation systems, and distilleries illustrate the interaction between technology, culture and nature in a semi-arid context.
Criterion (v): The Chilean Pisco territories represent an exceptional example of traditional human settlement in a challenging geographical environment. The adaptation of wine crafting techniques and cooperative models to local conditions highlights the resilience and creativity of its inhabitants.
Statements of authenticity and/or integrity
In the territory proposed as the Chilean Pisco Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape, authenticity is expressed both in its location and surroundings, as well as in the traditions, techniques and management systems, among other attributes. The Pisco agroindustry, its development and stability over time, are closely related to the location of the selected valleys and their surroundings. The geographic and climatic conditions allowed the development of this industry, with environmental characteristics preserved to this day.
On the other hand, the originality of its elements shows the evolution over time of different areas and a wide range of representative elements from different eras. The Pisco production infrastructure reflects the distillation model adapted from traditional European techniques. Several elements of the crafting process reflect the initial era of the distilleries, as well as elements of an intermediate period of industrialization of Pisco production in the early 20th century, that developed into production plants nowadays. There are also elements of agricultural processes, such as irrigation channels, which reflect their pre-Columbian origin and evolution over time, as well as the knowledge of the territory by the local community, adapting the agricultural production systems of the grape to the geographical and climatic conditions. There are also management and territory handling systems that manifest a local tradition, such as the irrigation system managed by the members of the community.
In terms of scope and integrity, the entire cultural phenomenon of the Chilean Pisco Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape is represented in the selected valleys (Huasco, Elqui, Limari), where the most relevant characteristics of its exceptional universal value are found. Rural heritage, urban heritage, environmental heritage, and intangible heritage express the traditional phenomenon as an Evolutionary Cultural Landscape. The size and quantity of material and intangible attributes allow the visualization of an integral asset.
Thus, both the architecture of the Pisco production plants and the residential architecture reflect an evolutionary process of the territory, which is represented in its different stages. A large number of functioning Pisco production plants, as well as pisco crafting infrastructure from different periods, are present in the valleys. The vine plantations have endured for over four Centuries, remaining stable and productive since ancient times, managing to adapt to the cultural, geographical and climatic conditions of their environment.
Finally, this territory holds strong local identity and roots, linked to the production processes from viticulture, winemaking and distillation, with the implementation of the cooperative model in force until today. Trades and traditions inherent to the production of Chilean Pisco have been kept and revered.
Comparison with other similar properties
This analysis focuses on the comparison with the regions that are part of the World Heritage List, referring to the Cultural Vine and Wine Landscapes. In this context, the World Heritage List recognizes two categories that are related to the wine-growing territory: the World Heritage Vineyards and the Cultural Vine and Wine Landscapes, with ten registered assets. Nine of them correspond to wine-growing regions located in Europe.
In Portugal there are two, the Alto Douro Wine Region and the Vineyard Landscape of Pico Island. Three are located in France: The Vineyards of Saint-Emilion, the hillsides, houses and wineries of Champagne and the Vineyards of Burgundy. In Italy, the Piedmont Wine Landscape Langhe-Roero and Monferrato on the one hand, and the Prosecco Vineyard Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene on the other. Switzerland has one, the Terraced Vineyards of Lavaux, as does Hungary, with the Historic Cultural Landscape of the Tokay Wine Region.
There are also other sites inscribed on the World Heritage List that have vineyards among their many features. In France, it is the Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes. In Germany, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley; in Austria, the Wachau Cultural Landscape, and in Italy, the cultural landscape of Portovenere, Cinque Terre and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto), with vineyards and olive groves.
In these European sites, valuable elements converge, such as architectural monuments (monasteries, castles, ruins), urban planning (towns and villages), and vineyards. These territories are living testimony to the long winemaking tradition of these regions. Hills, rivers and valleys, towns and villages with vineyards and long-standing wineries are a living example of the different facets of wine production in Europe. They are also linked to the production of high-quality wines with worldwide recognition.
As per the rest of the world, only one landscape linked to wine is listed as World Heritage. Such is the case of Palestine: Land of Olive Groves and Vineyards – Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir.
The Vine and Wine Cultural Landscapes dedicated to distillation or vineyards found in America are not represented on the World Heritage List. In this continent there is a centuries-old wine culture, linked to the arrival of Europeans to the American continent.
Within North, Central and South America there are several traditional wine-growing areas, such as California in the United States, Mendoza in Argentina, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and the wine-growing valleys of Chile, where wine has been produced for more than 400 years. These territories are of great value for their landscapes and cultural development, as they reflect the cultural transfer between the European settlers that arrived in America from the 15th century onwards, mainly linked to Spanish, French, and Italian influence. Vine growth and wine production systems brought from Europe were adapted to the geographical and climatic conditions of these territories.
Agave Landscape and the old Tequila industrial facilities in Mexico are now part of the World Heritage List. Located between the foothills of the Tequila volcano and the deep Rio Grande valley, this site extends through 34,658 hectares and is part of a vast landscape of blue agave crops. This plant has been cultivated for at least 2,000 years, to produce fermented drinks and clothing, thanks to its textile fibers. Around the 16th century, the crafting of Tequila began in this particular landscape; nowadays, several tequila distilleries are active, bearing as witnesses to the increase in international consumption of this alcoholic beverage throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, agave cultivation is considered an inherent element of Mexican national identity. The site comprises the landscape shaped by the fields where blue agave is grown, and the urban settlements of Tequila, Arenal and Amatitlán, which have large distilleries where the core of the plant is fermented to make alcohol.
Another Cultural Landscape linked to agricultural production stands out in our continent: the Coffee Cultural Landscape in Colombia, an exceptional example of a unique sustainable and productive cultural scenery, which represents a deep-rooted tradition and is a symbol and a reference both at a national level and for other coffee-growing areas of the world. This site includes six coffee landscapes and eighteen urban centers of the western and central chains of the Andes Mountains, in western Colombia. These landscapes reflect a centuries-old tradition of cultivating small plots amidst the forest, in which coffee growers adapted the crop to the challenging conditions of the high mountains. In this context, the cooperative model of coffee growers stands out, remarkably similar to the cooperative models present in the Chilean pisco territory, with strong roots and local identity.
The World Heritage Tentative List currently includes a number of proposals relating to viticulture and wine-growing areas. In Spain, the Cultural Landscape of Vines and Wine of La Rioja and Rioja Alavesa stands out, as well as the Mediterranean Face of the Pyrenees (France-Spain) with the coastal vineyard of Banyuls. The Tokaj Wine Region corresponds to Slovakia, meanwhile Croatia is home to the Primosten Vineyards. The most outstanding features of these properties are the current landscape elements: due to its bond with the origin of wine culture in the westernmost part of the Mediterranean.
According to the comparative analysis of the different sites already included in the World Heritage List, as well as the Indicative List, the proposal for a Chilean Pisco Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape is fully justified, for cultural and social reasons linked to a territory with a high heritage value, identity and history. This landscape is a living testimony of the importance of wine development in America for the different European populations that came to the continent and their descendants.
The inclusion of a Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape site highlights the richness of a territory where natural values and unique elements found along the Andes Mountains converge throughout the American continent. The cultivation of vines and wine production holds a strong bond to this territory, given the geographical and climatic conditions. Pisco is a distilled product that has its origin in winemaking; therefore, it is representative of the cultural and social values linked to these production systems.
For all these reasons, the Chilean Pisco Cultural Landscape has exceptional universal value. This distillate also has a Designation of Origin that dates back to 1931, being the oldest in America and the second in the world, after Cognac. In addition, it represents a distillate that is produced in different areas such as Peru and Bolivia, yet produced with diverse cultural values, different production processes and local cultural roots. The production of wine and spirits was very extensive in the Spanish viceroyalties and had no relation to the current geopolitical division of America, being a cultural phenomenon that spread throughout the entire region.
A set of Pisco production plants, towns, old rural infrastructure, cultural and natural elements conform this Chilean Pisco Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape, reflecting the roots of its inhabitants and an ever-evolving landscape for over 400 years. This landscape reveals this evolution in its form (adaptation to the territory or environment) and in its composition (different attributes). It is the result of a social, economic, and cultural demand, recognized in the valleys as a process of association and integration, as a response to its natural environment, a unique geographic enclave in the Andean foothills.
The Pisco valleys form a living landscape, since they preserve an active social function in the contemporary society of the Pisco territories, closely linked to the traditional way of life of the local communities, such as the small winegrowers who preserve vine production systems, as well as those who vinify and distill while maintaining a cultural tradition, with the implementation of unique models associated with cooperativism. In these territories the evolutionary process continues, until today. At the same time, the Pisco Territory presents material evidence of its evolution over time, imprinted in the Pisco production facilities, its towns, the traditional architecture, traditions, and intangible cultural heritage associated.