Wine & Drinks
Chilean wines dominate
By JOHN MARIANI
If I had to bet on what country's wines will dominate the next decade, I'd put my money on Chile.
And apparently so would California. Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chilean president Michelle Bachelet witnessed the signing of a historic agreement for a University of California, Davis collaboration with Chile on research and teaching in grape growing, winemaking, crop genetics, and breeding.
California and Chile share broadly similar climatic conditions and grow the same principal grape varieties; wine partnerships between them go back decades.
There's even a joke among California winemakers that the best place to meet their neighbors is in the lobby of the Hyatt hotel in Santiago, Chile.
No other country is turning out more high-quality wine at good prices than this Pacific-bound sliver of a country whose mountains have always protected its vineyards from infestations like phylloxera, an insect that wiped out European vineyards in the late-19th century. To this day Chile's strict agricultural laws prohibit the importation of any foreign plants.
The Spaniards first brought European vines to Chile. Because wealthy Chilean landowners preferred French wines to Spanish, they copied the Bordeaux style of blending cabernet sauvignon and merlot.
After World War II, however, the Chilean wine industry was almost taxed out of existence, resulting in the ripping out of vines in favor of more economical crops.
Since then, led by the huge Concha y Toro, the industry has bounced back big time. In 1980 Chile exported only 100,000 cases to the United States; today it ships 7 million cases, with approximately $200 million in sales.
In many cases the new, quality wines are being made by some of the world's best-known producers, here and abroad.
Some of Europe's top vintners have made major investments in Chilean vineyards, among them Spain's Miguel Torres and France's Cos d'Estournel, G.H. Mumm, and Grand Marnier.
In 1997 Concha y Toro signed a 50-50 agreement with France's Baron Philippe de Rothschild company in an attempt to make wines comparable to its famous Château Mouton-Rothschild. And the results have been amazing. Almaviva is a superb wine — a big, briary Bordeaux blend, well worth the $85 price tag in comparison to similar French Bordeaux that would cost three times that.
And Baron Phillippe de Rothschild Maipo Chile, which produces fine Chilean wines from the vineyards of the country's most prestigious valleys, makes the lovely Escudo Rojo, a lighter everyday red wine, at only $15.
I have been more than delighted with Le Dix, a lush Bordeaux style that sells for $50, made by Los Vascos with partner Eric de Rothschild of Lafite Rothschild in the Colchagua Valley. It is 100 percent cabernet from 50-year-old vines, and only 2,000-3,000 cases are made each year.
I am also impressed by the premium wines of Casa Lapostolle, like Clos Apalta ($75), Cousiño-Macul's Antiguas Reservas — a steal at $19 — and the stunning Montes Alpha "M," a luscious wine at about $95.
Montes also makes one of the world's finest syrahs — Folly from Santa Cruz (about $95), a huge wine with an excellent ratio of fruit to tannin. Last but far from least, the wines of Don Melchor (another Concha y Toro bottling) have a marvelous complexity of spices and fruit flavors. The 2006 vintage is about $80.
Issue: June 2009
