What Buyers Look For...                                                                        
Stephen Schiedel, the British Columbia Liquor Board’s Portfolio Manager for North and South American wines, was on the last leg of his third trip to Chile in four years when we caught up with him at the Hyatt Hotel in Santiago. It has been a whirlwind trip, with a quick visit to Mendoza in the middle, and now the 20 nearly empty glasses of red wines and a full tablet of tasting notes are all that remains of the 160 Chilean wines he tasted this time around.

How do you make your decisions about what to buy? Do you know what you’re looking for when you arrive?

Well, yes and no. For our Fall Chilean Signature Store release I’m looking for more premium wines that start at $18 but other than that I come with an open mind. I want to see what’s new and exciting. I taste the entire group and then see certain themes emerge.

What have you found interesting this time around?
I’m really excited about the Cabernet Sauvignons. They just sang this year! Especially those from Maipo, with its sweet dirt, where you get those soft tannins and great Cab flavors. It’s the Southern Hemisphere’s Napa Valley.

And then there’s the Pinot Noir; that’s another sub-theme this year. Two years ago Carménère was the revelation, then last year it was Syrah/Shiraz, and this year it’s the Pinot Noir. We have customers already asking for Chilean Pinot—and that was unheard of a year ago!

Then of course there’s the exciting cool-climate Sauvignon Blanc coming out of Casablanca, Leyda, and even Elqui, The mountains along the coast with their old soils and foggy saline air produce more energetic, lively wines with bright acidity. It’s like music: if it’s all bass, it’s boring. You need those high notes for it to be lively!

So you see a lot to get excited about…
Yes! Today’s consumers are faced with a lot of options, so they simplify things by dividing the wine world up to make it easier: New Zealand = white wine; California = Zinfandel; Argentina = Malbec, and Chile has Carménère… but so much more. Chile has a whole buffet of wines to offer.

Does that “Chilean Buffet” make it confusing for consumers?
No, I don’t think so because a lot of consumers are looking for discoveries. We can market by region, because regionality = diversity. Then you’ve got the top three varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, and Sauvignon Blanc…and so on.

So basically your consumers see that Chile offers them plenty of good options…
That’s right. Chilean wine is going through a second boom in British Columbia. There was the first in the 1990s, when it was new and it still had things to work out, and now it’s in the second wave, with better quality, better regionality, and better (higher) price ranges. The wines are fresher and younger and have a faster turnaround. The Southern Hemisphere has a real advantage here because they get a head start on the vintage—which makes the whole Beaujolais Nouveau concept kind of moot, doesn’t it?

British Columbian consumers are looking for youthfulness. They like fresh, fruity flavors, and stylish packaging. I’ve noticed that there are more embossed labels and Stelvin closures (screw caps) now, which is good. We have the young millennial consumer base; there are more and more young professionals with money to spend and they are drinking more premium wines. Chile is a good region for them.

In fact, sales of Chilean wine in British Columbia saw a double-digit increase in every price category except red wine under $10 this past year. Overall sales were up 18.5%, with whites selling almost as well as reds. Sales of red wines between $20 and $29 increased 38.3% and whites in that range jumped 51.8%; the over $30 group is even more impressive: up 43.4% for reds and 64% for whites.

The BC Liquor Store web site has a big feature on “Organic Wines” right now. Are you looking for more wines made with organically grown grapes?
Yes. Our consumers respond well to organic. They look for it in the grocery store and are now asking for it in wine as well. I need to provide them with choices, so yes, I’m selectively looking for organics by varietal, and I’m glad to see there are more labels with organic certifications these days.

And many Chilean wineries are certified organic without putting it on the label…
I can’t market it as organic if it doesn’t appear on the label. It’s not enough to have proof of certification stashed in a file somewhere; the consumer wants to see it. Canadians in general are very concerned about the environment. For example, in British Columbia the recent provincial budget introduced a Carbon Tax, the first in North America. It’s definitely an issue in Canada.

You’ve tasted some 160 Chilean wines, and are clearly impressed by what you’ve seen… so how many will you finally choose?
About 10%. I would rather have a smaller selection that we can market and sell well. Sometimes less makes for greater success.


Interview by Margaret Snook for Wines of Chile, Santiago de Chile, April 15, 2008