Macatho
Agricola Macatho, founded in 2016 by partners Macarena del Rio and Thomas Parayre is the prototype for up-and-coming micro negociants. Based in Chiles Maule, BioBio and Itata valleys, Macatho sources from several plots of old vine Pais and Chasselass, among many other varieties.
Macarena, a Chilean with French heritage, and Thomas, a Frenchman with South American curiosities met during a harvest with Louis-Antonie Luyt - the roommate of Thomas at the time. The self-described anarchists threatened to have us visit them mid-pandemic before solidifying a partnership, but eventually succumbed to a visit by Zoom accompanied by some of their creations and plenty of Cava.
Chile, for much of the first years of the new millennium, stocked the shelves of many Ontarians as their standard-bearer of bulk wine. Macarena and Thomas work intimately with a handful of farmers, all of whom they pay triple the standard rate. Most notably, the Flores family who have tended to nearly 200 year old Pais for generations.
Projects such as this find their place handily in Chile’s current changing of the guard. Macatho is confidently one of the most celebrated wine projects coming from Chile in recent years.
