Cachapoal River is a tributary

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

of the

Rapel River Rapel River is a List of rivers in Chile, river of Chile located in the O'Higgins Region. It begins at the confluence of the rivers Cachapoal River, Cachapoal and Tinguiririca River, Tinguiririca in an area best known as ''La Junta''. At present d ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

located in the

Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region The Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region (, ), often shortened to O'Higgins Region (), is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. It is subdivided into three provinces. It is named in honour of Bernardo O'Higgins Riquel ...

. The river gives its name to the

Cachapoal Province Cachapoal Province () is one of three provinces of the central Chilean region of O'Higgins (VI). Its capital is the city of Rancagua (pop. 214,344). Geography and demography According to the 2002 census by the National Statistics Institute (''I ...

Cachapoal Valley

The valley takes its name from the Cachapoal River that flows through Rapel Valley along with its tributaries, the Claro and Cortaderal rivers. All these watercourses flow into

Rapel Lake Rapel Lake (Spanish: ''Lago Rapel'' or ''Embalse Rapel'') is an artificial lake created by a dam on the Rapel River. It is located in the Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region, Central Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, ...

. Cachapoal River begun to

incise Incision may refer to: * Cutting, the separation of an object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force * A type of open wound caused by a clean, sharp-edged object such as a knife, razor, or glass splinter * ...

in the rising Andes in the

Miocene epoch The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

. Later, as glaciers developed in the Andes the upper part of the valley was glaciated and reshaped into a glacial valley. The climate of the valley is temperate and consistently

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, sheltered by the coastal range from the cooling influences of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

Wine

The Rapel Valley produces predominantly red wines, including

Carménère The Carménère grape is a wine grape variety originally planted in the Médoc region of Bordeaux, France, where it was used to produce deep red wines and occasionally used for blending purposes in the same manner as Petit Verdot. A member o ...

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebano ...

, and

Merlot Merlot ( ) is a dark-blue-colored wine grape variety that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name ''Merlot'' is thought to be a diminutive of , the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the color ...

. The valley's diverse microclimates allow the growing of a wide array of grapes; these range from cold-climate varieties at higher altitudes near the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

, to varieties which need warmer climates in the lower-lying areas surrounding Lake Rapel.

References

Sources

Cuenca del río Rapel
Rivers of O'Higgins Region Rivers of Chile {{Chile-river-stub