It had been 3 years since my last trip to South America, although I had been keeping up with developments as I send others down there to visit the wineries.
The main buzz when I arrived was Chile's new plantations, which have been steadily accelerating over the past 10 years. Not only are there a lot of new vineyards, but some of them are huge - up to 5000 acres or more!Many growers are concerned that the world market won't need all the wine that Chile will be producing in the next 3-5 years. The price of certain varietals has already plummeted as foreign demand has moved to other "flavors of the month", and the Chileans fear that when the market gets flooded their grapes will be relegated to the cut-price market, if they are needed at all.
I'm not so sure that Chile needs to be that vulnerable, however. True, if they grow huge vineyards and produce only bulk juice for the low-end market, they may well have problems. From what I see in Chile though, they have the potential - and some are already realizing that potential - to produces grapes of world-class quality.
The huge growth of vineyards is a reflection of the tremendous investments that have been pouring into the wine business here from both overseas and Chilean sources. Much of this money has of course been directed to the winery installations as well as the fields, and some of these are truly spectacular.
Just to give you an idea, one of our first visits on this trip was to Tarapaca. Tarapaca's (Chilean) owner sold the old estate near Santiago to developers who
are furthering the city's urban sprawl. To replace it he planted an entirely new 1250-acre vineyard in Maipu, a half-hour to the west of the city. He also built a brand new winery to go with it - a 7000-barrel cellar, enormous vat room, staff housing and school, which you'd easily take for one of Chile's old family-owned estates from the last century - but it's only a few years old!
Mondavi's investment in their Caliterra vineyard is no less impressive, with a starkly modern winery almost surrealistically perched at the head of a secluded valley covered with thriving young vines. And they are far from alone. From Chilean power players like Santa Rita and Concha y Toro to brilliant oenologist Alvaro Espinoza's tiny personal bodega, to pulp paper magnate Eduardo Matte's amazing project tucked under the shadow of the Andes (you won't see the wine for another 2 vintages), Chileans are out to show the world how very good their wine can be.
The point here is not the spectacular development that's visible to the eye, but rather the results that are perceived on the palate. Chile is on the brink of it's emergence as a real player in the fine wine world. With Bordeaux's Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Concha y Toro leading the way with their launch of Almaviva, their superb and very Bordeaux-like joint venture, a rather large handful of winemakers are poised to make a serious challenge to the wine "establishment", and these guys won't need to worry about making too much of their wines for the world market!Anyway, on this tour we started out in Santiago itself, to give our guests an idea of the nation's capital and to gather everyone in one place. Our local guide, Derek Mossmann (expat Canadian who's been in Chile some 10 years) met each arriving guest at the airport and brought them back to our hotel in the city - on this trip the Crowne Plaza.
A great bonus for our guests was the fact that we also had with us Denis Malbec and his girlfriend May-Britt Anttonnen. May-Britt is our lead guide in Bordeaux, and until the end of 1999 Denis was the wine-maker at Chateau Latour, Pauillac's wonderful First Growth. Denis now has his own consulting business, and was in Chile with us to learn more about the country's wines. Their input during the week added an extra dimension to everyone's trip!
Santiago is a pretty busy, noisy city. We always spend a couple of days there as there are some good wineries close by, but that's enough for me! We happened to be there at the time of the investiture of the new President, which provided a real show - parades, music, carnival stalls and apparently the entire population picnicking in the parks!
Santiago's fish market and Donde Agusto's seafood restaurant is something worth seeing. We always have lunch there during Derek's walking tour of the city, and dare our guests to try some of the exotic and weird produce available. Chile has several varieties of marine life that are totally unique to its coastline, and some of these are definitely an acquired taste, according to my guests!
Caramano has to be my all-time favorite restaurant in Chile. Located for years in a very dubious-looking part of town, the front door is hidden in a graffiti-covered wall - and you have to knock to gain entry! Once inside we were greeted personally by the owner, who then spent the evening flitting between the kitchen and our table, explaining each dish, it's origins and how it's prepared. Between the chef and Katrina, we were pretty full by the time we left - physically and intellectually!
We finally managed to escape our host's hospitality and get to our next visit at Viña De Martino (the US brand of Viña Santa Inés) where we met with Winemaker Marcelo Papas. Returning to Santiago we had a little time to freshen up before dinner at El Kilometre, one of the city's trendy French restaurants, a total contrast with Caramano the previous night!
Checking out of our hotel on Day 3 we began our journey south on the Pan American Highway. About an hour down the road we arrived at Casas del Toqui where we were shown around by the French manager, Philippe Dardennes. This estate is associated with the Bordeaux property of Chateau Larose Trintaudon, and makes some very fine wines. Philippe spent quite a bit of time showing us how the vines are managed, as well as the actual tasting.We went on to a visit at Viña Caliterra, Mondavi's joint venture with the Errazuriz family, nestled in the valleys of the coastal range. This is a stunning setting, and quite a hike from the main road! It was the first time Derek and I had actually been out to the property, and we found that it was a typical Chilean "half-hour drive" that takes a normal person about 90 minutes! Needless to say we were running a little late by the time we got there, but with the benefit of the modern age of cell phones lunch was held for us and we were treated to a VIP reception.
Not only did we enjoy a very extensive tasting and a delicious lunch with winemaker Rodrigo Banto, but he also arranged for our minibus, which was showing serious signs of thirst itself by the time we got there, to be fed - not too many gas stations around these parts!
After lunch we were led to a tractor-towed hay-cart to continue up the valley to see the awe-inspiring mass of stainless-steel where the 2000 vintage was about to be brought for vinification. The winery resembles something out of a James Bond movie, and the views from the head of the valley here are incredible.
have been visiting Chile; a unique and wonderful experience as we enjoyed the company of excellent hosts in their elegant family dining room. Exhausted, we returned to our hotel in Curico, looking forward to a lie-in tomorrow!Tomorrow came, of course, and while the party enjoyed a leisurely breakfast I amused myself trying to find phone lines and adapters to hook up the laptop so I could start putting some photos of the trip on www.avalon-tours.com. Somehow, no matter how well you plan, there always seems to be that one thing that doesn't fit... Anyway, I eventually succeeded, and at the huge expense of about $3 was back in communication!
The most surprising wine we tasted here was undoubtedly the 1997 Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc. This was a truly botrytis-produced wine, as is made in Sauternes and Barsac. As such it was quite a shock (a very pleasant one!) as the vineyards of Chile are, like any other region, treated to avoid the spread of this fungus that gives the unique character to the sweet wines of the southern Graves in Bordeaux. There was no arguing here though; even our Bordeaux expert Denis reckoned that this was as good or better than many of Bordeaux's sweet wines.
We went on to lunch at the home of one of my old friends, Pedro Grand, the owner of Discover Wine. Pedro is of old French stock, and was one of the first of the "new generation" of wineries that decided to start estate-bottling their own grapes in the last 10-15 years. Previously most of these vineyards had sold their grapes to the huge companies in Chile (Conch y Toro, Santa Rita, etc.) With the advent of the new demand for the country's wines they found that they could do a lot better by making their own wine, and Discover's "Montes Alpha" line (named after the oenologist of the company, Aurelio Montes) has been hugely successful in the export market. Back in Curico we made for the "Spanish Club", the favorite hangout of the region's aristocratic farming community, for a traditional Chilean dinner. An impromptu bonus was the arrival of Roberto and Caroline Echeverria, who joined us for dinner at the invitation of Derek.
Cono Sur is treated, however as a separate product entirely and has had tremendous success in Europe, particularly in the UK. It's definitely one of Concha y Toro's shining stars, as well as one of Chile's most respected brands, and my notes from our tasting go along with it's reputation. We had an interesting conversation with Adolfo on the maturation of grapes. He was one of a very few winemakers we met who considers that the cooler years in Chile are the best for the grapes. This is an opinion that Denis and I also share, and it is perhaps one of the factors that can significantly affect the future progress of Chile's wine.
Martin Prieure, of the Domaine Jacques Prieure in Meursault, consults for Adolfo in the production of his Pinot Noir wines. The grapes are fermented in open-topped concrete vats similar to those used in Burgundy, which were built in 1993. The resulting wines we tasted were quite impressive - reminding me very much of the Santenay or Mercurey style of Burgundy. Adolfo is also experimenting with some interesting "integrated" vines - his version of organic growing - of Pinot Noir, as well as about 12 acres of Phylloxera-resistant rootstocks, in case the pest should eventually start affecting Chile.
Not far up the road we came to another of Concha y Toro's vineyards at Puemo, where we met the resident winemaker, Felipe Tosso, who is another good friend of our guide Derek. (You might have guessed that Derek is a pretty gregarious fellow - he's also married to Pilar, another of Chile's up-and-coming young winemakers, who was responsible for the vinification of the 2000 vintage at Undurraga). Our visit at Puemo included a typical Chilean BBQ lunch (cooked mainly by myself, an Englishman!) in the back yard behind Felipe's house.
Puemo is currently undergoing some major renovations, but is already a pretty state-of-the-art facility in many ways, with fermentation very much automated. Data is linked directly to Felipe's office, as well as to Concha y Toro's head offices in Santiago.
After our "day with Concha y Toro" we continued to head north on the Highway, arriving at our lovely hotel Casa Real in time to unwind after a day on the road. Denis, May-Britt and I even managed to squeeze in a trip to the hotel's sauna to refresh us before dinner in the private dining room of the house - a perfect way to end a pretty long day!Casa Real is the private mansion of the owner of Santa Rita, which has been transformed into an outstanding small hotel, with 150-year-old gardens, pool, sauna, billiards room and the best service you could wish for. The attentiveness of the staff, the delicious food and wine and the ambience combine to make this the best hotel we have found in Chile - one of the best anywhere, for that matter. There is even a private chapel on the grounds, which was restored by the same Italian painters who worked on the restoration of the Sistine Chapel.
Day 6 found everyone well refreshed an ready for our first visit to Viña Carmen, which has the same ownership as Santa Rita, and produces one of Chile's most sought-after wines. Interestingly enough, this visit did not impress me as much as on previous trips. Perhaps because Alvaro Espinoza, the talented your oenologist who built the winery's reputation was no longer there to host us, or maybe because I'd seen so many other awesome projects already on this trip. Having said that, my tasting notes indicate that I was still pretty impressed - particularly with the '97 Winemaker's Reserve (an interesting blend of Cab Sav, Petit Syrah, Carmenere and Merlot) and the the '97 Gold Reserve (100% Cab Sav).
Cecilia used to work for Vina Aquitania, the joint project of Paul Pontallier (manager of Chateau Margaux) and Bruno Prats (former owner of Chateau Cos d'Estournel), two of Bordeaux's best winemakers. She is now in charge of this exciting "up-and-coming" new winery, typical of Chile's energetic young winemaking community. With Cecilia's influence we were allowed to visit the "top secret" winery which was still under construction, and I'm looking forward to our December trip when we should be able to see the finished product!
Harras is set in one of the most perfect vineyard situations I've seen; a big scalloped hillside at the base of the Andes, (Harras means "horseshoe" and refers to the geography). The winery sits high on the slope, and is itself designed as a horseshoe-shaped structure, with a stunning gravity-fed technical installation, majestic barrel-ageing cellar and a tasting room with a glass ceiling, with a fountain on top! All this was in the throes of completion when we visited, as they were racing to get the technical parts finished in time for the vinification of the 2000 harvest - in fact some vats were already fermenting amongst the turmoil of the construction.
Although the vineyard is 7 years old, the grapes have until now only been sold to other wineries. This year's harvest, though it will be vinified at the winery, will be sold without the estate's name, according to owner Eduardo Matte, and the first vintage to bear the name of the property will be the 2001.
Interestingly enough, my favorite Chilean winemaker, Alvaro Espinoza, is the chief consultant to this project, and I am confident that this will become one of Chile's major stars in the years to come, if he is allowed to steer the project in the way he knows best.
On our last day we added a special visit to Almaviva, which launched it's new wine in 2000 with great fanfare typical of their owner's style - this is Mouton Rothschild's project with Concha Y Toro, a similar venture to Opus 1 in California. This is another amazing winery with a Bordeaux-style wine that really does rival the Grands Crus of France! Just about everything in the winery, from the vats and presses to the artwork on the walls, has been imported from France. Philippe Larrain, the Concha y Toro family's manager who supervises the estate in partnership with a Rothschild representative, hosted our group's visit. Philippe's claim that Almaviva is the marriage of France and Chile seems true in many ways, but the style of the wine is definitely Bordelais - and very good Bordelais at that. For the retail price of about $70 a bottle that it sells for, it had better be!
After this we returned to Santiago, where after a casual lunch the group crowded into Derek and Pilar's tiny apartment for an impromptu tasting of a selection of wines we had not been able to fit into our meal program during the week.
Since no-one was flying out until this evening, we had all afternoon to relax and do last minute shopping, but after Derek's final tasting effort I don't think much else was accomplished!
This was not only the first trip to Chile for me in three years, but was also the most exciting. I'm looking forward to getting back there in December to taste the 2000 vintage from barrel and to see what other wonders the Chileans have in store for us.
This is often exacerbated by the other temptation, to over-crop the vineyard. Chile's vineyards can produce exceptional quantities of grapes if they are allowed to do so - the combination of sunshine hours and soils, combined with irrigation, can make for huge yields. Huge yields, though produce simple and diluted wine, and although I've tasted juice from Chilean vines was far better than that from some much more reputed regions with similarly high yields, there's no doubt that in order to make top-quality wines the crop management is critical.
This was one of the factors that Denis found most often in his analysis of Chile's vineyards, and unfortunately is one that is often hard to overcome, especially when dealing with venture capitalist investors who are looking for a financial return rather than a long-term goal to produce world-class wines.
One of Chile's claims to fame is that most of the vines here are still propagated from original varietal rootstocks that came from Europe in the 1850's, before the Phylloxera bug wiped out the European vineyards.No-one's quite sure whether the bug has never got to Chile, is there but doesn't attack the vines, or if the vines have managed to build their own resistance to it, but many Chileans are worried that with the increased traffic between Chile and other wine countries in recent years the problem may well start to affect their vines.
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