Chile

It is commonplace to think of Chile as a recent reality in the world wine scene, while the vine, in Chile, has been cultivated for centuries, since the Spanish conquistadors, in the sixteenth century, brought the first vines from Spain. The vine used at the time was the "Pais" variety that is not very interesting for quality wines that are still used today for basic wines or for producing "Pisco". A few years later with the introduction of new Bordeaux vines such as Cabernet-Sauvignon, Carmenere and Merlot, the quality of the wines improved significantly. The modern qualitative development began in 1980, thanks to new massive investments that improved the oenological technologies. 103,000 hectares of vines are grown today. From the geographical point of view Chile seems a paradise created for the cultivation of the vine. From the capital Santiago, for 100 km to the north and 400 km to the south, valleys branch off from the Andes to the sea; Maipo, Rapel, Curicò, Maule, each with its own river, terrain, microclimate. Also the general climate is ideal for the vine: the rains fall mainly in winter, while the dry summer does not favor the development of molds and pests; Andean and marine breezes further sanitize the grapes. Protected to the north by the Atacama desert, to the east by the Andean chain and to the south by the Antarctic glaciers, Chile remained unscathed to phylloxera which at the end of the nineteenth century devastated the European vineyards. Thanks to this the Chilean screws develop on their roots, guaranteeing a great qualitative and longevity advantage compared to the grafts; this explains the success of Carmenere who arrived in Chile in 1800 before phylloxera completely destroyed it in Bordeaux. Today Carmenere can be considered the true native Chilean vine. We also grow white-berry varieties such as Chardonnay and Sauvignon and in the southern, colder areas, including Gewurztraminer and Riesling.