A Different Chile (Part 2): Embracing a Shifting Winescape
Today, Chile is known as one of the top 10 wine producers globally – it is often found in the No. 6 or No. 7 spot. What is less known is that it has largest average winery size. There are probably fewer producers than you might have expected, and the big producers dominate the available resources.
“Statistics from our customs show that about 300 Chilean wineries are exporting, and there are roughly another 200-300 producers that only supply the domestic market,” said Aurelio Montes Sr., who is also the chairman of Wines of Chile, a private, nonprofit group representing Chilean wine producers.
“Wines of Chile focuses on the ‘premiumization’ of Chilean wine. However, we need more people, winemakers and entrepreneurs to believe that the only way to succeed and prevail is to make better wines at fair prices for the quality,” Montes Sr. said while articulating his goals as the head of the group.
Around 25 years ago, conglomerates and huge wineries like Concha y Toro, VSPT, Santa Rita, Errazuriz and Montes started this premiumization process, leading Chile to the place it is now. But new blood is required to write a new chapter for Chilean wines, and this is where wine unions and associations like MOVI, or Movement of independent Vintners, and VIGNO come in. They are spinning a new story for Chile.
The idea of MOVI, which now comprises 34 producer members, is simple – and not unfamiliar outside Chile. They are independent producers with winemakers/owners deeply involved in every aspect of their products and follow a concept of making artisanal, sincere and heartfelt wines with honest expressions of their terroirs and winemaking prowess.
ALL IN WITH CARIGNAN
In the VIGNO movement, Odfjell is one of the leading forces and advocates of Chile’s carignan. The winery, which has a Norwegian shipping background, has invested heavily in Chile’s wine industry, growing and sourcing grapes from organic and biodynamically farmed vineyards in Maipo, Cauquenes and Lontué. Odfjell makes wines from a broad spectrum of varieties, but their carignan and VIGNO are the wines that have drawn the biggest spotlight.
“Today, we are the biggest carignan producer in Chile, but notice that there are just about 3,000 cases per year,” said Laurence Odfjell, owner of the eponymous winery. Winemaker Arnaud Hereu told me that to save eight hectares of old-vine carignan, they had to purchase the entire 65-hectare property in Cauquenes of Maule that the carignan was originally planted on. Today, the importance of carignan and VIGNO for Chile goes beyond the high-quality wines, which are brooding with dusty plums and red fruit, minerals and flowers, and are framed in a densely packed structure and concentration while staying racy, fresh and mouth-watering..
These rare and genuinely exciting wines show off the highest qualities of the grape and make a statement about the old vines and unique terroirs that birthed them. They are also a reflection of how smaller producers have worked together to create something new.
“It is the first time that wine producers in Chile are coming together to create something like a denomination of origin, and among the members of VIGNO each of us has one equal vote – one for us, and one for Concha y Toro,” said Hereu of Odfjell.
The influence of VIGNO is also changing how people perceive and appreciate this style of wine, too. When Odfjell first released their carignans almost 10 years ago, they couldn’t sell them in the domestic market, and instead had to sell it mostly in New York. Today, carignan is one of their most in-demand wines in Chile.
“What is interesting is that our carignan is not a cheap wine at all. It is within the mid-price range. So, I believe there is a genuine interest,” said Laurence Odfjell. “If you blind taste Chile’s carignans, you couldn’t possibly guess that they are from Chile. And these wines are also changing Chile’s palate. Today, you see more and more Chilean wineries making fresher and more vibrant wines with higher acidity, and that I think has to go back to carignan,” Odfjell added.
I could tell Odfjell’s passion about the grape and the symbol that great carignan carries. The misgiving now is that there is not enough of it.
Today, Maule accounts for over 700 hectares of carignan vines, which is already 80 percent of Chile’s carignan vines, and much of it went to the dry-farmed, old-vine VIGNOs. Wineries like P.S. Garcia, Lapostolle, Odfjell, Gillmore, Emiliana, Garage and Undurraga all received 93+ points this year with their new releases. All this says is that the general quality of the 17 VIGNO members is consistent across the board.
Promising the old-vine carignan is, it is by no means an easy grape for winemaking. “It is easy to get stuck in fermentation owing to the low PH and high alcohol. It will get harder if you only use wild yeast,” said Francisca Palacios, who works closely with Arnaud Hereu in Odfjell to oversee the carignan wine production.
SHOW THE INTERESTING, SELL THE IMPORTANT
It should also be remembered that carignan was once considered something akin to “persona non grata” under the EU and the French Ministry of Agriculture’s incentivization plan in the ‘80s, during which vine growers in Languedoc ripped off much of their carignans and replaced them with syrah, grenache and mourvedre – all because of the rustic, green, and untamed wines that overcropped carignan once delivered. The good news is that carignan is now telling a very distinctive story in Chile. With these rare, low-yielding old vines thriving in the wild, we have to say it is very tempting turn down a bottle of these racy, powerful wines, one of the most exciting propositions in the modern wine society from Chile!
One of the names that has sprung up among the many newfound winery/winemaker alliances in Chile is Clos des Fous (“Madmen’s plot” in French), a project founded by Albert Cussen, Paco Leyton, the Burgundy-trained oenologist Francois Massoc and agronomist Pedro Parra, who consults for a number of wineries, lending his expertise on vines and terroirs. Together, they make some of the most terroir-specific wines in the southern part of Chile, including in Traiguén, in the Malleco Valley, and on the coast of Itata, where they deliver some soulful pinot noirs and a rare blend of carignan, pais, carmenere, malbec and syrah. As these projects and organizations have gained recognition regionally, they have also started to attract attention globally.
As the longtime chairman of Wines of Chile, Aurelio Montes Sr. has been working to encourage small associations like MOVI to join his organization, but in the end, several have turned down his offer because they see themselves as having a different vision and philosophy.
“They feel that Wines of Chile is only for the big producers, which is not true. We also have … many smaller producers,” Montes Sr. said. “But I have to say VIGNO and MOVI are doing a good job and are helping Chile’s wine industry a lot in showing there is courage, especially in young winemakers, developing their philosophies in winemaking by showing different terroirs and technologies.”
Indeed, young winemakers are the ones who shine through in consortia like MOVI. Daring to break away from the norms, they have embraced what is yet to come – for instance, making very light but super-drinkable reds and cloudy, macerated whites. You can call it natural winemaking, or even refer to them as “orange” wines. I consider such relatively counterintuitive winemaking strategies a challenge to the traditional perception of wine colors and transparency, and they surely expanded the spectrum, even though not all the wines from MOVI were worth our attention, with the quality varying from very high to barely acceptable.
“They have led a successful adventure of new grapes, although the commercial side of it still needs to be explored,” Montes Sr. said. “We have a saying – ‘mostremos lo interesante, vendamos lo importante’ [let’s show the interesting and let’s sell the important], and they are the interesting aspect of Chile. It is a way that we tell the world that we are not stuck in the traditional varieties, and we are brave enough to explore new grapes and terroirs. I think it is a very good strategy for Chile, but when you look at the numbers of sales at the end of the year, traditional varieties are still the ones paying the salaries of the staff,” he said.
But remember that Chile’s wine story is one of great diversity, with several identities spread across and recognized by the market. Its backbone, however, is not just the smaller producers. Big producers, too, are pushing the limits, trying out new terroirs and new varieties.
Marcelo Papa of Concha y Toro believes Chile’s chardonnay has experienced a leap in quality over the last five to 10 years, in part because it is coming out of new terroirs. The company’s flagship chardonnay, Concha y Toro Chardonnay Valle de Limarí Amelia 2019, is a standout for the country’s chardonnays, along with a few others from Villard, Ritual, Pandolfi Price and the French-invested William Fèvre.
“Amelia Chardonnay was initially a wine from Casablanca for almost 30 years, which was a little more tropical and opulent,” Papa explained about its history. “We decided to move Amelia from Casablanca to Limari [and] we had stunning success, and people recognized that minerality and freshness with a Burgundy sense.”
Papa said that in Quebrada Seca, in Limari province, the company found the right kind of limestone and calcium carbonate soil “upon which there is red, iron-rich clay, which is great for a chardonnay with that minerality.” They also added pinot noir to the portfolio in 2017 in the adjacent “Santa Cristina” soil, a terroir defined by a slightly higher portion of clay and angular stones.
ROAD TRIP TO CHILE: Highlights from our 2020 Chile tasting trip.
For Montes Sr., his most recent adventure includes planting cinsault, tempranillo, touriga nacional and albarillo. “I think cinsault coming from Itata Valley is very interesting and drinkable, and that could appeal to new consumers,” he said. Some of Montes’ latest projects fit into their Outer Limits line, of which the Zapallar Valley syrah showed excellent quality, value, and drinkability. As the name Outer Limits suggest, Montes is not shy of pushing the limits and jumping out of his company’s comfort zone.
“Today, we also have vineyards in Chiloe island in Patagonia, 1000km south of Santiago, where we planted seven varieties – sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, chardonnay, albarillo, pinot grigio, rieslin, and gewurztraminer,” Montes Sr. said. “We are trying to discover which of these would perform best in a very adverse, rainy, cold climate. But even if they don’t work out, at least we made an effort.”
Having no fears of new challenges, Montes Sr. is often considered by his peers as a pioneer in Chile’s wine scene.
“I have the idea that to know where your limit is, you have to go beyond your limit. So maybe until you fail, and then you realize you went too far,” Aurelio asserted. “My feeling is that we have done well with coastal regions and the central valley, but I think we haven’t done a good job in the foothills of the Andes yet.”
Whether coming from big or boutique producers, as Montes Sr. said, the new wines and their establishment-challenging styles, grapes, and terroirs are still the most interesting aspect of the Chilean winescape. But in the end, at least for now, what brings the money in for the country’s wineries trumps all.
And while mass consumers (and wine journalists) still clamor for Chilean offerings, our curiosity and thirst for the next exciting new thing to come out of the country remains unquenched. And so may the next “interesting” wine to come out of the country also be its – and the world’s – most important.
Part 1 of our special Chile report is available here.
– Zekun Shuai, associate editor
The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated for this report by James and other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many of the latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon.
Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.