How 2018 is shaping up

After the upheavals of recent years, everyone in Chile was hoping for a calm, generous vintage in 2018. It wasn’t quite to be, though the consensus is cautiously positive. A coolish, late season (especially in the south) gave variable results with some long-season varieties such as Cabernet and Carmenere struggling to fully ripen. The flipside is fresh fruit, low alcohols and lighter styles. ‘One of the best vintages in many years,’ enthuses Undurraga’s Rafael Urrejola, who touts it as a red vintage for ‘ fresher’ styles. Marcelo Papa from Concha y Toro cautions fellow producers to keep stocks back, ‘since we don’t know what the climate has in store’.