Chile
has a long history of growing vines since the Spanish
brought vines with them when they colonised the country
in the 1600’s. Under Spanish rule the vineyards
were restricted to only producing bulk wines that would
be shipped back to Spain. Despite Chiles association
with Spain, it was the French in the 1800’s that
really influenced the Chilean Wine Industry. In the
1800’s Bordeaux stables such as Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot, and Sauvignon Blanc were first introduced to
Chilean soil.
In the 1800’s the Phylloxera [parasite whose
venom destroys the root stock of the vine] virus wreaked
havoc in the vineyards of France destroying all of the
vines. Fortunately Chile its vines were imported before
the Phylloxera outbreak in Europe and hence were healthy
and uninfected. To this day, Chile has remained one
of the few wine regions which Phylloxera has not damaged.
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The
increase in popularity of Chilean wines in Ireland
has been amazing. According to a Wine Board of
Ireland survey in 1990 Chile had 0.9% market share
of the table wine sales in Ireland. Making Chile
the 9th most popular country on the Irish market.
In 2004 Chilean wines sales had increased to 21.5%
of the market share of table wine sales, and were
now firmly placed as the second most popular choice
in the Irish Market. |
| Map courtesy of the WineWeb e-Marketplace
[www.wineweb.com] |
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Chile
can be split into three zones,
1. The Northern Zone, where it is too hot to successfully
grow vines.
2. The Southern Zone, where it is too wet to successfully
grow vines.
3. The Central Zone, where the climate is perfect
for growing vines – some consider the conditions
to be to perfect. In a perfect world a vine needs
to be made to work to survive thus expanding the rootstock
further down into the soil to gain moisture. This
moisture will have greater mineral content and result
in increase depth of flavour and complexity. If it
is to easy for a vine to grow it will produce too
much average fruit with poor concentration levels
and flavour content.
The Central Zone [See map above for further details]
can be further split into 5 main regions those being
from north to south
-
Aconcagua – Cabernet Sauvignon
reigns supreme here. In recent times Viognier has
started to do well here.
-
Casablanca – The maritime
climate makes this region the perfect site for white
varietals such as Sauvignon Blanc, Gewurtraminer,
and Chardonnay.
-
Maipo – Most varietals,
both red and white, tend to do well here. A large
amount of the larger companies are based here in
the Maipo.
-
Maule is a region that contains
both Curico and Rapel Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon
and Sauvignon blanc both tend to well in this region.
-
Bio Bio is the last of the main
regions, this is the bulk wine region. Where a lot
of the lower price level wines from Chile are produced.
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Colchagua and Limari are two
up and coming regions that are starting to produce
some really interesting wines. Look out for this
regions in the near future.
Chile is unique from a geographic perspective with
the cooling Pacific Ocean on the westerly coastline
and the Andes mountains on the easterly coastline.
The mountains provide sufficient water to ensure that
the vineyards are properly irrigated, and enough sunshine
from the rain shadow of the mountains. The morning
fog from the Pacific Ocean cools all of the vines
down, and ensures balance and acidity is retained.
Chile has experienced huge investment from overseas
Vineyards, in particular from Bordeaux with many of
the larger Chateau linking up with Chilean vineyards
to produce new and interesting wines. The effect of
Miguel Torres arrival in 1979 also had a major impact
on the wine industry in Chile. All major international
varietals have been successful in Chile, with Cabernet
Sauvignon Merlot and Chardonnay being to the forefront.
However since the mid nineties it was officially recognised
that what a lot of what was thought to be Merlot vines
were actually Carmenere vines. Carmenere was one of
the original six permitted varietals in Bordeaux,
and since the late nineties Carmenere has been appearing
on bottle labels.
Vintages tend not to be a huge issue with Chilean
wines, the last 5 years vintages are generally accepted
as very good for both reds and whites. With 2005 recognised
as one of the most successful vintages of recent times
in Chile.
The following are some of my favourite producers
from this region,
-
Casa Lapostolle – Selection
available from Thomas Woodberrys
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Vina Errazuriz – Selection
widely available
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Cono Sur – Selection
widely available
-
Montes – Selection widely
available
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