Chile comes of age
Fifteen years on from an unforgettable tasting, Christine Austin revisits some of the South American nation’s top vintages and is even more impressed.
IT was a tasting I shall never forget. Fifteen years ago, I was invited to taste 12 glasses of wine – blind. There were no pointers to what each wine was, apart from knowing that I was tasting several Chilean wines, alongside some of the finest and most expensive wines from Bordeaux and Tuscany. There were 60 of us, all wine trade and wine writers, gathered in a room in a posh London hotel, with Eduardo Chadwick, owner of Chile’s Viña Errazuriz, Seña and Viñedo Chadwick wineries introducing the task ahead of us.
This was the eighth in a series of almost identical tastings that had taken Eduardo around the globe, starting in Berlin in 2004, and continuing to São Paulo in 2005, Tokyo in 2006, Toronto, Seoul, Beijing and so on until the entourage arrived in London in May 2009.
In 2009 the reputation of Chilean wines in the UK was mixed. You could get some really good flavours for a fiver. Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc were the main grapes available, and there were always plenty of cutprice deals. It was acceptable to take a bottle of Chilean wine to a barbecue but not to a Sunday lunch.
At the tastings, independent adjudicators ensured fair play and the results, first from the Berlin tasting and from subsequent tastings around the world, were astonishing.
Instead of the classics of Bordeaux and Tuscany claiming top marks, the Chilean wines, which included Seña, Don Maximiano and Viñedo Chadwick, were totally integrated among wines from Ch Mouton-Rothschild, Ch Latour, Sassicaia and other top properties. Each tasting gave different results, but over 15 nations, and 1,400 wine professionals, Chilean wines were placed within the top three places in 20 out of 22 events.
This doesn’t mean that Seña tastes the same as Ch Mouton-Rothschild, but when it is evaluated, blind, by a number of wine professionals, it has comparable quality. In fact, after the results had been handed in, I remember several of us comparing notes, and finding out just how many wines we had mis-identified, confusing Chilean wines with the hallowed wines of Bordeaux and Tuscany.
The aim behind these tasting was not to knock the classics, but to open the eyes of wine trade that Chile has the potential to make world-class wines.
So last month, when I was invited to taste through some of these wines again, I leapt at the chance. There was no need to line them up against Bordeaux châteaux. That point had been proved over the last two decades. This was to see if the wines in question had held up over the years and had the ability to develop. All the wines were identified. This was not a test, more of an appreciation.
First poured were three vintages of Don Maximiano, Founder’s Reserve, 1984, 2008 and 2021. It is named after Don Maximiano Errazuriz who founded the company in 1870. He had travelled to Europe and came back with an idea to create his own winery. He found exceptional terroir in the Aconcagua Valley, 100km north of Santiago, and planted vines, built a winery and even constructed a village for his workforce.
1984 was a period of old-school winemaking in Chile. There were big vats made of rauli wood and very little temperature control in the winery but still this 100 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon wine shone with aged but vibrant
flavours and a creamy, long finish. By 2008, the blend had changed adding Carménère, Syrah and Petit Verdot. With depth and power, and still showing life and energy, this was a lovely wine. The 2021 vintage has a different blend, with 22 per cent Malbec now in the mix along with Carménère and Petit Verdot. Silky and packed with fruit, this is a wine with precision and harmony.
Next into the glasses was Kai, a Carménèrebased wine, a grape which until a couple of decades ago had been confused with Merlot. Once it was correctly identified and allowed to ripen completely, it was made into wines with real Chilean personality, with lush, ripe blackberry fruit, pink peppercorn notes and sweet spice. Just two vintages were presented, 2010 and 2021. Over that decade, the oak influence has been dialled back, allowing the fruit expression to emerge. Kai 2006 came top at the New York tasting in 2010, beating Opus One and Haut Brion into second and third place.
The room was quiet as three vintages of
Seña were poured. Seña started out as a joint venture with Robert Mondavi and the search for the right place to plant vines took several years. Eventually, still in Aconcagua, but closer to the coast than existing vineyards, a fabulous vineyard on the side of a hill was planted with red Bordeaux varieties, at first using organic, then biodynamic, viticulture. When Mondavi pulled out of the joint project in 2004, Eduardo Chadwick kept going. The vineyard now extends to 42 hectares and careful selection of grapes ensures that only the best go into the final wine. The vintages poured, 1998, 2015 and 2021, showed gradual finesse in winemaking. As the blend changed, replacing Merlot with Malbec and adding Carménère, the profile of the wine becomes more precise and perfectly elegant.
Then came the final flight. Viñedo Chadwick honours the memory of Eduardo Chadwick’s father, Don Alfonso who not only established an estate in the Maipo Valley but was also one of Chile’s top polo players. At the centre of the estate, he created his own polo field, but as Alfonso approached retirement, Eduardo asked if he could plant it with Cabernet Sauvignon vines. The goal posts remain at the edge of the field, and these vines produce one of Chile’s finest wines. Tasting through 2000, 2014, 2020 and 2021 vintages, it was possible to evaluate the variations, the gentle grip of Cabernet wrapped around with complex, layered flavours.
Not only has this tasting proved that Chile’s wines can age, but they can command serious prices. When I tasted them 15 years ago, Seña and Viñedo Chadwick both cost around £40 a bottle. Now Seña is over £100, while Viñedo Chadwick is priced at over £300. You can find all these wines at Bon Coeur, Hic! Field and Fawcett and Corking Wines.