Photography by Samantha Demangate
Chile’s wine industry revolves around some big-names. Cheap and delicious, these wines are perfect for those looking for value and quality. Yet to discover a region’s wine, it’s necessary to reach further. Our deep dive into Chilean wine revolved around discovering the people in the industry who are doing something unique and pushing the country’s winemaking to new limits.
Wine shops are always great starting points for discovering wine. Our journey started at La Cava Del Barrio, a small wine shop that specializes in the smaller players in the Chilean wine industry. The owners have cultivated a great relationship with dozens of Chilean winemakers and teams and their selection shows it. The shop showcases what they feel are the best wines from Chile’s 18 major wine producing valleys. After every visit, they sent us home with something incredible.
A Brief History of Chilean Wine
The wine industry in Chile dates back to the 16th century, when the colonizing Spaniards planted the first vitis vinifera grapes. As Europe suffered from the devastation caused by the insect phylloxera and the United States was dealing with inimical anti-wine sentiment during prohibition, Chile’s winemakers worked in relative comfort. Eventually, they introduced French noble varietals, which became the standard.
Late 20th century technology created a huge spike in wine exports around the world. Soon, countries like Japan and the United States were buying Chilean wine in enormous quantities and at low prices. The industrialization of Chilean wine was here to stay. In 2020, Chile’s wine production was 8th in the world, at 10.4 million hectoliters a year.
Still, some winemakers set out to do something different. Afterall, the country’s climate was perfect for winemaking. A diverse range of climate zones like hot desert, Mediterranean, cool highland, and other microclimates stretch throughout this narrow country. For expressive winemakers, this is ideal. They could plant noble varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon or Sauvignon Blanc, in places that mimic their home turf in Europe. They also push the grapes outside their comfort zones by planting them in extreme climates. Besides noble varietals, winemakers in Chile also use clones and old varietals not commonly found outside of Chile.
Pais
The mission grape, commonly known as pais in Chile, has become one of the country’s flagships for bold winemakers. It was the first vitis vinifera planted in the New World, from Chile to California. After European immigration, the mission grape fell out of favor to Italian and noble varietals.
In Chile, old vines of pais can be found spreading uncontrollably on the ground levels of home vineyards. They sometimes climb up trees, buildings, and anything they encounter. The oldest vines remain scraggly low to the ground crawlers. The homeland for these wild vines is in central Spain. Now, they are almost extinct there.
Pais produces large juicy berries in vast quantities. Although the grape fell out of favor, many people around Chile loved making pais for themselves. Similar to a Boujalais, young pais wine was bright and effervescent. Most of all, it was cheap and easy to make. As the vines age, they produce fewer grapes that are more concentrated. Young pais is very low bodied and low in tannins, slightly similar to a gamay.
Grapes picked from older vines, however, can be more complex. These are what Chile’s new winemakers are looking to express. Now, pais is experiencing a surge in popularity. An overlooked light bodied red in a land of boldness. This results from talented winemaking and the belief in the power of terroir.
Carmenere
When the phylloxera plague ruined Europe’s grapes, one less common Bordeaux variety became widespread in Chile. For most of Chile’s winemaking history, winemakers thought this grape was Merlot. At the end of the 20th century, genetic testing proved that this was in fact the almost extinct French carmenere.
Like merlot, carmenere makes tannic, medium to full-bodied wines with low acidity. These velvety wines have flavors of bold black fruit and prickly spices. When aged, they can produce some of the most complex wines in South America.
Our Favorites from Cava Del Barrio Wine Shop
Polemico from Laurent Wines
Husband and wife duo Laurena and Damien Laurent started Viña Laurent in 2008. Born in the vineyards of France, Damien met his wife Laurena while she was working on his family’s vineyard, Château L’Escart, in Bordeaux. Laurena is from Chile and eventually the pair moved to the Valley of Maipu near Santiago to start their own vineyard, believing in the untapped potential of Chilean wines.
Polemico is a masterpiece crafted from the Pais grape and fermented with wild yeast. The wine is balanced with subtle tartness and bold red fruit aromas. They source their grapes from 150-year-old vines that, in typical pais fashion, are ungrafted and wild.
L’entremetteuse Pet Nat Carmenere and Pais Blend
Chile’s glorious love affair with pais and carmenere is expressed in this blend. Both grapes are blended and fermented using natural yeasts. As natural wines go, this one has deep and refreshing flavors of black fruits and cloves with a lighter body and smooth tannins. We ended up buying this bottle twice and enjoyed every sip.
Attilio & Mochi’s Sauvignon Blanc from Tunquén, Chile
Chile’s cool central valley produces some of the best Bordeaux varietals in the new world. The Brazilian winemaking pair Attilio and Mochi created this incredible Sauvignon Blanc that expresses Tunquén’s terroir perfectly. Refreshing acidity and mild vegetal notes harmonize with bright citrus flavors and aromas of spring flowers.
For more photography by Samantha Demangate, check out her website at samitographi.com
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