After a week in Chile, it’s time for a bit of reflection on the latest developments.
First of all, it is clear that the current appellations are unhelpful and need revising. Wines of Chile is already looking into this. The appellations like Limari and Colchagua are actually administrative regions – not wine areas.
It’s likely we’ll end up with something along the lines of coastal, central and mountain Colchagua/Limari etc to better reflect the style of wine that you can expect in the bottle. At the coast, grapes might ripen two or three weeks later than their central counterparts. You’ll also find cool climate grapes including Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc on the coastal sites while later ripening varieties (mainly reds) will be found in central and mountainside vineyards.
What else? Chile has huge diversity of soils and terroirs. I went to Chile feeling quite sceptical about its diversity and ability to make a wide range of styles but happily, I was wrong. The wineries I visited are doing lots of pioneering work in virgin territory, planting in cooler and more appropriate sites.
Sophisticated electromagnetic surveys and extensive soil mapping (I don’t want to see another trench anytime soon!) means vineyards are now being planted in better sites and with the correct varieties rather than sticking vines in willy-nilly.
There’s also lots of work on developing clones. Inferior clones are being ripped out and replaced and so we ought to see better wines emerging.
I think we sometimes forget how young Chile is. It really is just starting to discover its best sites and in the next five years I think we’ll start to see more elegant and fresher wines. There’ll still be plenty of cheap Merlot and Cabernet for the mass market but this week has shown there is clearly some classy stuff just beginning – and at much cheaper prices than you’d get from Europe, New Zealand and Australia.
