Text and photos by Isabelle Legeron

Wines of Chile organized an educational visit to Chile for journalist Isabelle Legeron, who won an Institute of Masters of Wine travel scholarship from Viña Montes last year.

This article was first published in the Association of Wine Educators Newsletter, April 24, 2009.

Chile’s sheer, brutal natural beauty will take you by surprise. Having recently spent 6 weeks there as a first timer, I can officially say the countryside is sublime. Three of those weeks were spent touring wineries from Bio-Bio to La Serena, on a study trip. I had limited myself to a couple of wineries a day, max three for in-depth visits rather than speed tasting.

Diversity

I witnessed firsthand that the North to South Chilean diversity of terroirs is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a plethora of tiny pockets of very different growing conditions dotted along the transversal axis. The cold air stemming from the Humboldt Current, the morning coastal fog hugging the ancient coastal range and the cool Andean air have more impact than latitude.

When visiting Casablanca and San Antonio, the sun vanished for two days and it was cold whilst less than two hours away, vineyards around Santiago were basking in the sun. Similarly in the Limari Valley, the Tabali winery is located in a cold, windy corridor, enabling them to grow impressive, cool fruit which end up, for example, in their fabulous Syrah ‘Reserva Especial’ 2007.

And Syrah was the star grape of the trip, particularly when coming from those cool spots like Matetic in San Antonio. Their EQ Syrah is a favourite of mine but it is getting better. The 2007 tasted intensely peppery, fresh, violet-scented and, essentially, highly drinkable.

Pinot Noir

I am left unconvinced by Pinot Noir in Chile. I found the vast majority, particularly at the top, ambitious end, too extracted, oaky and lacking varietal expression. However, I did particularly liked Casa Marin Pinots for their crunchiness and elegance as well as the Corpora 2008 Veranda barrel sample which showed more elegance and promise than its bottled counterpart, testament to the talent and dedication of their Burgundian winemaker, Louis Vallet.

Paradise

Chile is indeed a viticultural paradise (which raises the question of why there are not more organic vineyards in Chile) with plenty of uncharted wine territories, particularly in those transversal nooks and crannies. Chile has perfected the process of winemaking and I felt, overall, that it has been playing safe, particularly in the winery, running the risk of being formulaic and definitively to the detriment of creativity and diversity.

Exciting projects

The next phase, however, is under way. More diversity in the grape plantings (like Montes with their young Grenache vines), an increasing biodiversity awareness, the rediscovery of ancient dry-farmed vines like Carignan in the Cauquenes area and incredible wines made from the Pais grape by Louis-Antoine Luyt are just examples of exciting projects which will bring more spice to Chilean wines.

Some of my favourite wines amongst many others, randomly, included Gillmore Carignan 2006, a mature Montes Alpha M 2000, Casa Marin Sauvignon Gris 2008, Casa Lapostolle Borobo 2005, Cono Sur Riesling Reserve 2008, Casa Silva Los Lingues Carmenère 2007 and Haras de Pirque Albis 2004.