Chilean Wine Out of Focus

Filed in archive Wines from Chile on June 14, 2006

It is hard to put your finger on exactly why wines from Chile are so good. What makes Chilean wines stand out from say wines from France or Spain, for example?

I think most wine drinkers will agree that when they have tasted Chilean wines they have rarely been disappointed, but it isn't always that easy to say why these wines are so good.

Lettie Teague from Food and Wine attempts to figure this out in her article "What Defines a Great Chilean Wine?" and part of the problem seems to be focus:

It's an Ironic state of affairs for a country so focused on exports. Indeed, in 2004, Chile's wineries sent 74 percent of their production out of the country, much of it to the U.S. and the U.K. And yet vintners complain that most of their customers don't really understand Chilean wine, from the names of the top bottles to the grapes the country grows best. "Chile lacks focus," said Sebastian Allende, the export director of Santa Rita, as we sat tasting the winery's new releases, which ranged from its inexpensive 120 series (Cabernet, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Carmenère) to its flagship Cabernet Sauvignon, Casa Real.

I noted that Allende's complaint wasn't lodged against Santa Rita (Chile's third-largest winery) or his fellow producers but Chile itself. It was a charge I was to hear over and over again during my trip: Chile was confused, Chile was unclear, Chile didn't know how to promote its wines. And which wines should Chile emphasize anyway? Its great bargains, like the terrific $10 Sauvignon Blancs that I'd tasted recently back in the States? Or perhaps its Carmenère, a grape once mistaken for Merlot that only Chile seems to do great things with, or at least, be able to grow? Or should the focus instead be on the so-called icon wines, the Bordeaux-style blends designed (and priced) to compete with the best wines in the world?

This was a conundrum to be sure, but then Chile itself proved no less a puzzle, starting with Santiago, where my trip began.