Chile’s new wine mantra: quality(1)
Chile is moving up in the world. Once synonymous with inexpensive, cheerful wines that paired well with jeans and T-shirts, the South American country is in the midst of a jacket-and-tie makeover.
The bargains remain plentiful, to be sure, notably represented by the entry-level offerings of such popular brands as Concha y Toro and Santa Rita. Those big companies blossomed in the 1990s as investments soared with the demise of dictator Augusto Pinochet’s economic stranglehold. But the past decade has seen another revolution take root. Throughout the narrow, 4,300-kilometre ribbon of land bordered by the Andes to the east and Pacific Ocean to the west, quality is the new mantra, especially in the $12 to $30 range.
Credit some of the progress to technology, such as temperature-controlled fermentation to enhance fruit freshness and new French oak barrels, which have all but replaced old wood casks. But the big leap has occurred in the vineyards. Growers have been taking a surgical approach to planting, moving beyond the warm valleys to higher ground on the Andean foothills as well as to cooler sites near the coast. Better sites build stamina in the vines, yielding concentrated berries with a backbone of balancing acidity.
Some of the recent plantings have proven especially favourable to the new darlings of Chilean viticulture, pinot noir and syrah, which have joined bread-and-butter varieties merlot, cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay. Carménère, the country’s signature red, with its fruity-spicy profile, has found its own groove, shedding its herbaceous backbite with the move to well-drained slopes free of excessive winter rain or haphazard flood irrigation. With softer tannins than cabernet sauvignon and syrah, carménère is proving a compelling constituent in new, quintessentially Chilean blends.Although Chile’s shipments to Canada recently fell behind those of its value-oriented South American neighbour, Argentina – the latter with its crowd-pleasingly chunky malbecs – there are signs of a turnaround as consumers discover newly available premium brands and higher-quality offerings from established producers. In the 12 months ending this past November, Chile and Argentina represented 5.3 per cent and 5.4 per cent, respectively, of wine volume sold in Canada. But in that period Argentina declined 8.1 per cent compared with a gain of 6 per cent for Chile. If the trend continues, Chile will be ahead of its neighbour.
“Consumers are coming to Chile for higher-priced, $15-plus alternatives, and we have the quality to attract them and keep them,” says Javier Santos, Canadian country director for Marnier-Lapostolle, which produces the excellent Lapostolle brand.
You’ll find that quality reflected in the offerings below, available in the provinces indicated.
Coyam Emiliana 2007
Score: 92 Price: $29.99 in B.C.
The country’s creative blending skills are evident in this uncommon union of syrah, cabernet sauvignon, carménère, merlot, petit verdot and mourvedre. It’s as though Bordeaux had merged with the northern and southern Rhône valleys. Big-bodied yet balanced, this red shows notes of blackberry, currant, vanilla and toasty oak, seasoned with a dusting of herbs. Perfect for roast beef. It should improve with 10 to 15 years in the cellar.
