chile’s innovation
entirely on low-priced wines that were
“
just drinkable, simple, overcropped.”
Quickly, however, Chile saw an influx
of investment (Lafite, Mouton, Robert
Mondavi, Antinori, Torres), widespread
implementation of new technology and,
most importantly, a fresh commitment to
“
learning about appellations and clones.”
He asserts, “Chile is like California in the
Southern Hemisphere,” and capable of
making wine that can compare favorably
with the best of the world.
It took time—and a lot of educa-
tion, Guarachi notes. Gradually the
wine media and the trade took notice.
He points to a blind tasting of the 2004
vintage, in which Montes showed well
against higher-priced Bordeaux and
California wines as a key moment. Casa
Lapostolle’s Clos Apalta being selected
as Wine Spectator’s “#1 Wine of 2008”
was another. While Chile did not ex-
perience anything quite as dramatic as
California did with the 1976 Paris tast-
ing, in two decades’ time, Chile achieved
a fundamental shift in perception—from
price orientation to quality. As Guara-
chi puts it, Americans began to “equate
Chilean appellations and producers with
great wine.”
Going Vertical:
Chilean Terroir
Great wine begins in the vineyard, goes
the saying, and talk of vineyards inevita-
bly turns to the concept of terroir. Fortu-
nately, Chilean terroir is every bit as valid
as European terroir, but for two basic
reasons it’s a whole lot easier to grasp: 1)
European wine zones are complex patch-
works, featuring hundreds of subdivisions
and qualitative designations; Chile has
just over a dozen wine regions, all valleys,
and thanks to the country being long and
narrow, they are basically stacked north
to south, framed by desert to the north,
ocean to the west, mountains to the east.
2)
While European terroir quickly tilts to-
ward minutiae, Chile keys more on simple
climatic and positional factors, namely
latitude (warmer toward the equator);
proximity to the coast (with beneficial
cooling breezes); and elevation (think:
hillside or valley floor).
Whereas many 20
th
-
century Chilean
wines emerged generically from the
“
Central Valley,” today’s wines proudly
declare a sense of place. The delicious irony
at work is that it was Old World savoir-
faire that has empowered Chilean growers
to match grapes to microclimates in their
wine regions. Certainly the learning is
still ongoing, but the patterns that have
emerged are being shared—accelerating
the process. Sauvignon Blanc is thriving
in cool pockets of Casablanca, coastal
Colchagua and San Antonio valleys, for
example. Further inland, Maipo is king for
Cabernet Sauvignon and Colchagua and
Cahchapoal do well for Carmenere. (One
revelation about Carmenere: it fares better
on valley floors than hillsides.) Syrah
shows promise in both warmer and cooler
areas (as it does in other parts of the New
World). Way south in Bío Bío, Pinot Noir
is proving to be a great match.
As fruitful as the past decade or so has
been in terms of terroir-targeted plantings,
the best may still be yet to come. Case in
point: Concha y Toro’s brand new Gran
Reserva Serie Ribeiras, or “Riverbank
Series”—six varietal wines, each grown
on terraces and hillsides along Chile’s four
major rivers. These vineyards benefit not
only from the mineral-rich and free-drain-
ing soil, but also from the river corridors
that bring cool breezes to complement the
naturally sunny landscape—ideal for slow
maturation of the fruit.
Diversity, with Quality
Planting the right grapes in the right places
is neither magic nor guesswork; it’s agricul-
ture and science, and the system is work-
ing in Chile. This is very important in the
big picture: Moving forward, Chile is well
positioned to avoid the potential pitfall of
becoming a one-trick pony, à la Shiraz in
Australia or Malbec in Argentina.
On one level, Chilean wine diversity
is subtle, evident in how many wineries
produce multiple varietals. But on closer
inspection, producers are exploring varia-
tions within this theme, via single-vine-
yard, reserve and proprietary bottlings.
Los Vascos, Santa Rita and Concha y
Toro are established wineries which, for
many years, have done a nice job of pro-
ducing varietal wines on distinct tiers,
where intensity and complexity ascend
with price. Today it’s hard to find a winery
that doesn’t produce and market in levels.
The net effect is that Chile has more than
avoided a sense of sameness; the mod-
ern Chilean portfolio—whether at the
importer, distributor or retail/restaurant
level—rivals the selection you could as-
semble from any wine country on earth.
Even within the palette of well-
known grapes, there is both breadth and
depth. Listening to Brand Manager Javier
Guinazo talk about the Chilean brands at
Winebow, for example, is like listening to
a proud father introducing four children.
The eldest, Cousiño-Macul, specializes in
high-elevation Cabernet Sauvignon from
Maipo Alto as well as solid Chardonnay.
Leyda (in the San Antonio Valley just
eight miles from the coast) is the young
whiz kid, proving Chile’s promise in
cool-climate Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot
Noir. TerraNoble is like the child who’s
good at everything, with vineyards in
the Maule, Colchagua and Casablanca
valleys yielding six different varietals
bottled in distinct Classic, Reserva
Carolina Wine Brands, makers of Santa
Carolina, has embarked on one of the
most ambitious research programs
in Chile, under the watch of Chief
Winemaker Andrés Caballero. Ongoing
trials are exploring new grapes (from
Cinsault to Moscato to Touriga Nacional);
new clones; irrigation methods; electronic
soil mapping; and varied aging regimens,
in barrel and steel tank. The research has
inspired a new “Specialties” label, but
as Caballero puts it, “This research is
not for us. We are building a new Santa
Carolina—for the next 50 or 100 years.”
research
