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by Manos Angelakis
Viva Chile!
Thankfully, gone are the days when the high-quality, good-tasting Chilean wines could only be found in Santiago or Chile’s other major cities, as what was being exported was the stuff the Chileños – that know what good wine is – would not think of drinking themselves.
A number of the traditional producers have partnered with winemakers from other parts of the world - France, Italy and the United States – made major investments in their wineries and instead of producing the indifferent and bulk wines they used to export, are now creating exciting vintages that can stand toe-to-toe with any First Growth product of the best Bordeaux châteaux. Others have hired young, well educated Chilean winemakers and are entrusting them with creating the excellent wines Chile’s terroir is capable of producing. Many new producers are making world-class vintages right from the beginning of their wineries and many foreign winemakers have bought parcels of land and are now making wines as good as or better than what they make in their own territory.
Chile is a country “2600 miles long and a smile wide” to quote an old advertising slogan. It has a long, narrow shape occupying the space between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, on the west coast of South America, from the arid Atacama Desert of the north to the inhospitable Tierra del Fuego in the south. In the middle of the country, between latitude 30° and 40° south, is a series of valleys that provide an ideal microclimate for viticulture. There is relative absence of summer rain; oceanic breezes help control extreme summer temperatures; and the long summer daylight hours on the eastern slopes of the hills allow the grapes to ripen to full maturity. The country has a rich winemaking history; wine grapes came to Chile with the early Spanish settlers. Phylloxera that devastated vineyards throughout most of the rest of the world never took hold in Chile, so there is old rootstock that produces outstanding grapes.
The Limarí Valley, produces some of Chile’s finest Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc grapes.
The Aconcagua Valley has some of Chile’s oldest vineyards. With a long, hot, dry summer, the valley produces high quality Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and more recently Sangiovese.
A relatively newer growing area, Casablanca Valley, has come to the forefront with high quality red varietals in the higher elevations, as well as good whites, such as Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay in the lower, cooler areas.
The Maipo Valley, near the capital Santiago de Chile, has been the foundation of the Chilean wine-trade since the mid-19th century and today is still the area where the majority of the oldest and better wine-producing vineyards are located. Complex, intense, and well-defined wines are created in this area from luscious Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syraz, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Carmenère grapes.
A bit further south are Rapel, Cachapoal and the viticultural newcomer Colchagua; a series of interconnected valleys with a mild Mediterranean-type climate. Gentle breezes from the ocean and the maritime soils of the coastal hills create the ideal conditions for producing exceptional red wines. Some of the finest Merlot grapes prized for their fruity character as well as excellent Cabernet Sauvignon grow here on the elevated vineyards of the Andean foothills.
With vineyards continuously cultivated since the 19th century, the Curicó Valley produces outstanding red wines on the western side, close to the ocean, and whites in the east, at the western foothills of the Andes. Thirty-two different types of wine grapes thrive in the diverse microclimate of the second largest vine-growing area of Chile and some of the more venerated producers are located here. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Merlot, Malbec, Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah are some of the grapes that make both the single varietal and blended multivarietal wines for which the Curicó Valley is famous.
So, there is a surfeit of great wine coming out of Chile and early in May 2005, Wines of Chile (www.winesofchile.org), the promotion arm of the Chilean wine industry had a tasting event at Thalassa (www.thalassanyc.com), an upscale restaurant in New York City’s Tribeca district, to introduce this year’s new vintages to our market.
There were 31 producers and each exhibited at least 3 wines with the majority exhibiting 5 or more. There were many good table wines in the $8 to $14 retail range and some exceptional reservas, grand reservas and limited production wines in the $20 to $50 retail range.
I was mostly impressed by:
Viña MontGras. A new winery founded in 1992 in the Colchagua Valley.
One of the oldest operating vintners Viña Santa Carolina with vineyards in the Maipo, Casablanca, Rapel (Colchagua, Cachapoal) and Lontué Valleys.
Another of the established wineries was Viña Santa Rita with vineyards in both Maipo and the Casablanca; Santa Rita, also owns Viña Carmen, the oldest Chilean wine house, with vineyards in some of the best locations in the Maipo, Casablanca, Curicó and Rapel Valleys.
From the Maule Valley, a more southern growing area come wines with intense aromas, good body and medium long finish. Viña Cremaschi Furlotti, an estate with more than 130 years of winemaking history, grows excellent grapes there.
I also had a chat with Mr. Ricardo Letelier, the Managing Director of Wines of Chile, who was on hand for the festivities. He assured me that the Chilean wine industry is investing in new machinery, better cultivation methods, and well-educated winemakers, both native and from abroad. In addition, there are now better quality controls over what is exported.
Logically priced, great wines from Chile are here to stay; let the wine producers of other countries that price their product to the stratosphere beware.
For a more detailed description of the wines mentioned above, kindly visit The Oenophile Blog, a new publication by LuxuryWeb Magazine’s editors and corespondents.
(Editor’s Note: The use of both Syrah and Shiraz in this article is deliberate. Syrah indicates original French rootstock, Shiraz indicates either American or Australian rootstock or grafting on American or Australian rootstock or a wine mixture that is not 100% Syrah)
© July 2005 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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