When the Spanish sailed their Invincible Armada during the Age of Exploration and colonized Chile for over three centuries, it was actually the French who had a significant influence on the wine of this mysterious South American land.
In the 19th century, when a deadly grape pest plagued France called the phylloxera aphid, numerous French winemakers were unemployed. However, some of them serendipitously ventured to the colonial territory of Chile in search of opportunities and shared their winemaking techniques with the locals.
So, if you're wondering what delicious wines Chile offers, now you know!
The answer is that the grape varieties in Chile are highly similar to those in France, especially Bordeaux!
Red wines in Chile often feature grape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and their signature Carmenere, which actually originated from Bordeaux. For white wines, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay are predominant.
The style of Chilean wine follows the restrained Bordeaux system, but due to its lower latitude, the climate is warmer, classified as a temperate Mediterranean climate. As a result, the tannins are generally softer and very approachable.
The key point is that Chilean wines are priced at only about one-third of Bordeaux wines!
Like most New World wines, Chilean wines are often labeled with the use of single grape varieties, making them easy to identify. However, when buying Chilean wine, you may find that the names of Chilean wine regions are quite challenging to remember, and they often sound like indigenous dialects. For example, Colchagua, Curico, Itata... unless you are an industry expert, it can be difficult to keep them all in mind!
But there is a little trick to roughly distinguish the regional styles. In Chilean wine regions, they are divided based on their distance from the coast. There are three main regions: Coastal Zone (Costa), Between the Mountains (Entre Cordilleras), and Andes Mountain Zone (Andes).
In simple terms, the closer a wine region is to the coast or mountains in Chile, the more elegant its style tends to be. This includes regions like Elqui Valley, Limarí Valley, Casablanca Valley, San Antonio Valley, and Leyda Valley in the Coastal Zone. In the Andes Mountain Zone, regions like Aconcagua Valley, Rapel Valley (which can be further divided into the western Chapoal Valley and eastern Colchagua Valley), Maipo Valley, Curicó Valley, and Maule Valley also produce wines with a more refined character. Some red wines from these regions are even known for their classic green pepper aroma.
In contrast, the wine regions nestled in between, such as the Itata Valley and Bío Bío Valley in the Entre Cordilleras region, tend to have a warmer climate, resulting in wines with more mature fruit aromas and fuller bodies.
Chile went through a period where it primarily produced cheap, low-quality fortified wines due to economic and political instability. However, with the later emergence of stable economic growth driven by copper exports, the wine industry also experienced a renaissance.
Today, Chile is among the top five wine-producing countries globally, and some Chinese wine critics even refer to certain prestigious Chilean wineries as the "Chilean 18 Disciples." These include wines like Viu Manent 'Viu 1', Errazuriz Chadwick, Montes Folly, Montes M, Seña, and many others.
