Chile 2025 Tasting Report: A Premium Push, Water Woes and a New Era of Viticulture

Tucked away in the coastal town of Talinay, in Limari Province, the tiny Caliza vineyard is a hidden gem that not only showcases the distinctive qualities of Chile’s rare chalky limestone soils, it also epitomizes a subtle evolution of Chile's premium wines.

This year we evaluated more than 1,200 Chilean wines, and on behalf of JamesSuckling.com I flew to Chile in early April and reviewed more than 450 of these offerings with 50-plus producers and winemakers during a two-week sojourn. Having covered the southern part of Chile, mainly Itata, last year, the focus this year was on the north, especially Limari.  Though one might compare it to France’s Chablis, Limarí’s extreme, arid climate and geology – marked by significant temperature fluctuations and a base of rugged granitic bedrock – sets it apart, amplifying the austerity of its terroir.

Despite these differences, Limari has become one of Chile’s few regions capable of producing world-class chardonnays, signaling a shift in the country's vinous identity, which has long been dominated by cabernet sauvignon and carmenere.

Producing great wine in such a harsh environment, however, is anything but straightforward. The Tabalí Chardonnayl Valle de Limarí Caliza 2023, sourced from a mere 0.7-hectare parcel, is a powerful testament to terroir, with its piercing acidity and minerality born from deep limestone fractures. But achieving this level of refinement has required not just meticulous vineyard work, but also a stroke of fortune.

“We didn’t think it was our best chardonnay until we finally found a clean underground water source for irrigation,” Tabali winemaker Felipe Muller explained. Before this discovery, the vineyard – now seen as a grand cru by viticulturist Hector Rojas – suffered from high limestone content and the salinity of Limari River water. Muller recalls how the wine was previously blended into Tabalí’s broader Vetas Blancas range. “Once we accessed water that wasn’t saline, the quality improved dramatically.”

Salinity remains a defining feature of Limari’s wines, particularly in Talinay and Quebrada Seca, adding savory complexity when balanced but becoming overwhelming when found in excess. Even though vitis vinifera is relatively salt-tolerant, prolonged exposure can damage vines. This is why Tabalí opts against rootstock grafting. And with annual rainfall often paltry, high-quality irrigation remains one of the region’s greatest limitations.

The 2024 growing season underscored these challenges. After cooler 2022 and 2023 vintages, Limari saw a return to heat and drought, receiving just 39 millimeters of rain, or about a third of the historical average.

Water scarcity looms large across Chilean wine regions, but nowhere is the impact more complex than in Casablanca. “Unlike Limari, we don’t have a river, and underground water levels are low,” said Ricardo Baettig, the head winemaker at Morandé. Since Pablo Morandé planted the first vines in 1982, Casablanca has been the country's flagship cool-climate region for premium whites and pinot noir. But overexpansion and shifting climate dynamics have dulled its former edge.

“Casablanca seems to have lost the glory of its early years,” said Alberto Eckholt, the chief winemaker at Viña Caliterra, which is part of the Errazuriz group. Though his vineyards aren’t facing severe shortages yet, he warns that the cost of accessing water has soared. “We need to drill deeper these days to find water – 150 to 200 meters, compared with 25 to 50 meters in the past, and it costs about $1,000 per meter,” he said.

What was once a prime investment hub, Casablanca is undergoing a radical transformation. Smaller, city-backed vineyards are disappearing, replaced by homes and solar farms. Even big players like Veramonte, Morandé, and Casas del Bosque are scaling back. Since 2017, Casas del Bosque has uprooted 100 hectares due to irrigation issues. Lapostolle has halted further investment in the region altogether.

“Vineyard area has shrunk from 6,000 to around 4,000 hectares, and the decline continues,” Baettig noted. The region is also battling leafroll virus and rabbit infestations, with many early-2000s pinot noir blocks among the first casualties.

Though Chilean pinot noir has earned recognition as a value-driven alternative to Burgundy, market tastes have fluctuated. Some winemakers credit the American film Sideways for Casablanca’s initial pinot boom. Yet many wines from older clones now show sweet-sour fruit and signs of overripeness, leading to a lighter, less structured profile.

Top-tier examples, like Cono Sur’s Ocio 2022, reflect a new direction: less new oak, greater purity and stylistic affinity with richer Burgundies. “We either revive it or abandon it – but we can’t just sit back and make do,” Baettig said.

For Alberto Cuolo, the Italian-born winemaker at Casas del Bosque, the moment for transformation is now. He sees vineyard replanting as a chance to enhance quality – and challenge market inertia. “There are many varieties that could thrive even better in Casablanca,” he argued. “The market now is not going well anyway, so it might do good to implement some changes.”

Chile’s flexibility in adapting to market forces has long been its strength. But with domestic wine consumption falling – especially among health-conscious younger drinkers – and new regulations mandating calorie labeling, producers face mounting headwinds.

In response, larger wineries are playing it safe, while new opportunities emerge in alternative markets like Brazil and the United Kingdom. At the same time, smaller, independent projects are reinvigorating Chile’s wine scene. Many of these winemakers, such as Ana Maria Cumsille (head winemaker at Carmen and owner of a boutique Itata label), juggle roles at major wineries and side ventures.

“Today, Chilean wineries are a bit more open-minded about winemakers having their own projects. It was not like this 10 years ago,” Cumsille said. Her excellent Ana María Cumsille Malbec Valle de Itata Cipres Vino de Parcela 2023 stands out as a benchmark for Chilean malbec, sourced from ancient vines.

Andres Campana, the young and talented winemaker at Kingston Family Vineyards in Casablanca, is also emerging as a rising star with the wines he is making both at Kingston and his own project, Silvestre Campana & Familia. One of his criticisms of Chile’s big players is that they try to cover every region, grape, and price point, making it difficult to maintain quality across the board. “It’s like checking off a list,” he said. “It’s impossible to make quality wines in every tier that features every appellation with every grape variety.”

With the top five to six companies controlling nearly 70 percent of Chile’s wine output, this approach and mentality lead to overproduction and reduced wine prices.

Some producers have even opted to rebrand their former “Reserva” wines as “Gran Reserva” in order to boost sales of lower-tier stock, although the terms mean little in terms of quality of the wines. The only difference between them is Reservas must be aged a minimum of six months before release and contain a minimum of 12 percent alcohol, while Gran Reservas must be aged 12 months and have a minimum of 12.5 percent alcohol.

Conversely, quality-focused wineries are moving away from such terminology. For example, Morandé recently eliminated the Gran Reserva designation from its Vitis Unica line, even though many consumers in Chile still rely on these terms when selecting wines.

Still, the domestic market remains small, with carmenere reigning supreme. Syrah, despite producing excellent wines, has struggled to find favor on the international market – perhaps overshadowed by Australian offerings. Yet Chilean syrahs like the Ritual Syrah Valle de Casablanca Alcaparral Block 2022, Kingston Family Vineyards Syrah Valle de Casablanca Cj's Barrel 2023 and the more concentrated Clos du Lican Apalta 2022 show a cooler, more Rhone-like character.

Other niche varieties, such as carignan, cinsault, pais and semillon, are gaining premium recognition. Semillon, in particular, is enjoying a quiet revival, with standout examples including the unique and briny Carmen Semillon Apalta Florillón #7 NV, which is aged with flor yeast for a radical twist, as well as the concentrated Silvestre Campana & Familia Valle del Maule Acquapendente 2021 and the J. Bouchon Semillon Valle de Maule Granito 2023.

It’s surprising that white wine isn’t more popular domestically, given Chile’s incredible seafood – from oysters and abalone to the iodine-rich piure. But international recognition is growing. “We’re getting better at whites, and they’re becoming more popular in international markets,” said Nicolas Bizzarri, the winemaker at Luis Felipe Edwards, Chile’s third-largest exporter.

Chardonnays remain the stars, but serious sauvignon blancs – showcasing tension, minerality, and salt, and not just citrus zest – deserve notice. Notable examples include Rafael Tirado’s Laberinto, from the mountain terroir of Colbun, and Casas de Bucalemu, from the coastal region of southern Leyda, where limestone-rich soils contribute to their distinctive profiles.

Most of the premium wines sampled this year are from the 2023 vintage, a generally hot year in the Central Valley, much like 2020 and 2025. Andrea Leon of Clos Apalta and Lapostolle noted the higher minimum temperatures from November to May of 2023, punctuated by several heat spikes. Although the average temperature was slightly above that of 2020, the vintage was spared the severe drought. With 462 millimeters of rainfall at Clos Apalta, 2023 falls between the parched 2020 (199 mm) and the much rainier 2024 (1,001 mm), with the latter vintage producing many elegant reds due to its significant winter rainfall with generally later harvests in the Central Valley.

Despite the heat spikes, the top wines of 2023 showed harmony without signs of heat. The only 100-point wine this year, the Viñedo Chadwick Cabernet Sauvignon Valle de Maipo 2023, is among the finest Chiliean wines I have ever tasted, maintaining its alcohol level of about 13.5 percent.

The vintage also marks a subtle evolution in the flagship wines of the Errazuriz group, including the Viñedo Chadwick and Seña, which have been gradually reducing their reliance on oak since 2022. The 2023 vintage underwent 18 months of barrel aging, down from 22 months, and included 10 percent of foudre – large wooden vats – to decrease wine-to-wood exposure. The result is a wine that highlights length, finesse and chalky tannin texture.

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Harvest time is always critical for Chilean producers who prioritize freshness alongside complex, delicate flavors – as well as a bit more crunch – in their wines. For the Chadwick 2023, grape picking began a week to 10 days earlier than normal. Similarly, the grapes for the biodynamically farmed Seña 2023, from Aconcagua Valley, were also picked a week earlier in the warmer vintage.

“If you blink, you will lose it,” cautioned longtime Viña El Principal winemaker Marco Puyo, who also has his own project, Dagaz.

Puyo’s Dagaz Carignan Valle de Maule Vigno 2022, from dry-farmed centenarian vines, shows what Chile can achieve with Mediterranean varieties. Alongside top bottlings from Garage Wine Co. and Carter Mollenhauer, these wines offer bright, high-acid, “blue fruit” vibrancy – proof that austerity, not opulence, defines Chile’s finest carignans.

As Derek Mossman of Garage Wine Co. quipped, “The grapes of the sun don’t like wood.” From carignan to chardonnay, Chile’s Mediterranean edge is emerging as its secret weapon – and there's no border control on quality.

– Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated by the tasters at JamesSuckling.com. Note: You can sort the wines below by vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.