Chicha de Uva

the young grape drink of the Chilean vendimia: fresh País must left to work for a few days only, drawn off cloudy, sweet, and barely alcoholic, and drunk from a jug at the September ramadas

Origin: Chile

From the journey of Grapes.

Chicha is an Andean word for a fermented drink, and it belonged to maize and to wild fruit long before the Spanish arrived; the Mapuche made it from strawberries and from apples, and the name simply moved across to the grape when the vine reached the Chilean central valley in the fifteen-fifties. Chicha de uva is not wine and is not trying to be. The must of freshly crushed grapes is left to work for only three or four days, so that the yeasts have converted a part of the sugar and no more, and the drink is drawn off whilst it is still cloudy, foaming, sweet, and scarcely three or four degrees of alcohol; it goes on fermenting in the jug, and it must be drunk within a week. The grape is the País, the old colonial vine that came down from Peru with the missionaries and is the same plant as the Criolla Chica of Argentina and the Mission grape of California, still growing on its own ungrafted roots in the Maule and the Itata because phylloxera never crossed the deserts and mountains that fence Chile in. Its moment is the eighteenth of September, when the country keeps its national holiday in ramadas roofed with branches, and chicha is drunk from tumblers beside the empanadas and the asado.

Ingredients

  • 6 kg ripe red wine grapes, unwashed, preferably País, Carignan, or another thin-skinned variety
  • 150 g caster sugar, or to taste (optional, if the fruit is not fully ripe)
  • 1 strip orange peel (optional)

Method

  1. Pull the grapes from their stalks into a large scalded food-grade bucket or crock, discarding any that are mouldy or broken. Do not wash them.
  2. Crush the grapes thoroughly with clean hands or a wooden masher until every berry is burst and the bucket holds a slurry of skins, pips, and juice. Stir in the sugar if you are using it, and the orange peel if you like.
  3. Cover the bucket with a cloth tied down, and leave it at cool room temperature, between about 18 and 22°C, out of direct sun. Within a day the must will begin to hiss and a cap of skins will rise to the surface.
  4. Push the floating cap of skins back down into the juice two or three times a day with a clean hand or spoon. Ferment for 3 to 4 days only, tasting daily from the second day.
  5. Strain through a scalded cloth into clean bottles or a jug, pressing the skins only lightly. Refrigerate at once and drink within a week, releasing the bottle caps daily to let the pressure off.

Notes

This is a live, unstabilised drink and behaves like one: it is cloudy, it fizzes, it separates, and it is at its best on the second or third day after straining. Chilean makers do not filter or clarify it, and a jug of clear chicha would be regarded with suspicion. Any thin-skinned red grape will serve, though the old País is authentic and is increasingly sold by Chilean and specialist merchants under its own name; white grapes give chicha blanca, which is lighter and drier. The related pipeño is a step further along the same road, a simple País wine fermented out and sold young by the jug in the Maule and the Itata. In the cold south of the country the same grape appears as vino navegado, red wine warmed with orange and cinnamon. Those who prefer no alcohol at all should stop at the crushing and drink the fresh must, which the Chileans call mosto and which is excellent and lasts two days.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
© 2026 The Gastrographer. All original research, narratives, and illustrations. All rights reserved.