Chile Annual Report: Beyond Carmenere and Into an Ocean of Freshness

Is Chile about to be knocked off its throne as the King of Great Consistency by the one-two combination of the hot and dry 2020 vintage and global pandemic? We asked ourselves that question while tasting the stockpile of Chilean wines in our Hong Kong office in April and May, with more than a third of those wines from 2020. But after getting through more than 1,100 bottles, our fears were dispelled: against all odds, the unfailingly high quality of the country’s wines still shined through, and you can safely keep popping the corks.

Sven Bruchfeld, the founder of Polkura winery in Marchigue, admitted that 2020 was a challenge, even though Chilean winemakers had coped well, as usual. “For Chile, it is difficult to really get a bad year,” he said.

So it seems, and many wines from the relatively extreme 2020 support this contention. In a nutshell, the dry winter and hot summer that year effectively cut yields, and the result was wines with more structure, concentration and opulent fruit. Many of the wines exude more of a New World generosity and fruit sweetness than in the past, but the best didn’t cut any corners in terms of freshness, energy and finesse, smoothing out any rough edges from the year.

NATURALLY FRESH

The iconic names from central Chile showed especially well because most of them came from cooler sites and older vines and varieties that coped better with the climatic conditions. Freshness from these vineyards occurred naturally.

“The old vines with deeper roots and the good terroirs always show through in difficult years, especially in a warm vintage,” said Francisco Baettig, the head winemaker for one of the top vintners in central Chile, Viña Errázuriz. Baettig made admirable wines from the vintage for Viña Errazuriz and the other wines of Viñedo Familia Chadwick, including Viñedo Chadwick, Don Maximiano and Seña.

Baettig talked about the old vines as if they were “old people” – at once more experienced and better equipped to deal with off years. Young vines suffered more in the hot and dry 2020 – a year that a few winemakers compared to 2017, with a very early harvest and small crop. “You could easily see the behavior of young vines was totally different, as the sugar level was going up very quickly," Baettig said of 2020.  The challenge of the vintage was preserving the fruit's freshness in the vineyard, which Baettig said they did by irrigating a little more during the heat peaks.

Baettig’s brother, Ricardo, the chief winemaker at Morande, showed us what freshness and drinkability are all about with his more laid-back wines. As the winery that brought Chile’s coastal region to wine fame, Morande has two souls today. One, the more mainstream, produces wines like the Morandé Valle de Maipo House of Morandé 2019 and Morandé Pinot Noir Valle de Casablanca Blanc de Noir Brut Nature 2013.

THE PATH TO DRINKABILITY: Ricardo Baettig of Morande on Chile's varietal diversity.

Morande’s Aventura line, though, is more audacious: a mouthwatering expression of Chile's unassuming diversity and freshness, coming from grapes like pais and cinsault, or from bold and succulent Mediterranean blends. The Morandé Mourvedre Valle de Maule Gran Reserva 2020 and Morandé País Valle de Itata Adventure Colinas de Ranquil 2020 are excellent examples of Chile's unworldly drinkability.

In the Puente Alto region, in the Maipo Valley, leading producer Don Melchor recorded a well-below-average 88.7 millimeters of rain from May 2019 to April 2020, with a well-above-average temperature of 19.5 degrees Celsius before the January to April harvest. This made 2020 one of the driest and warmest vintages in Puente Alto since 1987, and making a fine, layered, varietal cabernet sauvignon was a supreme test.

“It was an amazing challenge to achieve the complexity with … just one single variety but from different parcels,” Enrique Tirado, Don Melchor’s winemaker and general manager, said of their flagship cabernet sauvignon. With the inclusion of 6 percent cabernet franc, 1 percent merlot and 1 percent petit verdot, the Viña Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto 2020 is a deep, concentrated red with a tad more opulence and generosity, but still fresh, composed and silky.

For 2020, the coastal freshness came through in pinot noir, chardonnay and syrah offerings from some leading, resourceful producers. Marcelo Papa, the technical director of Concha y Toro, told us that 2020 was not considered a very warm vintage in Limari, one of the northernmost wine regions in Chile, because it was a La Niña year, where the surface temperature of the sea in the East Pacific was cooler than usual. The mineral Concha y Toro Chardonnay Valle de Limarí Quebrada Seca Vineyard Amelia 2020 and the textured and ethereal Concha y Toro Pinot Noir Valle de Limarí Quebrada Seca Vineyard Amelia 2020 are Chile's answers to Burgundy from the vintage.

READ MORE: TOP 100 WINES OF CHILE 2021

This Burgundy flair is also echoed on the Aconcagua Coast, where Errazuriz delivered excitement in its Las Pizarras pinot noirs and chardonnays once again. Francisco Baettig’s tribute to Burgundy comes from Traiguen, in Malleco province, about 600 kilometers south of the capital, Santiago, and 55 kilometers from the coast.

"Grapes ripen later in Malleco than in the north with less radiation, so the fruit preserves very good acidity," said Baettig, who has 15 hectares of pinot noir and chardonnay planted on a 22-hectare plateau rich in ancient, volcanic soils with clay. The high average rainfall here means irrigation is not necessary and vines can develop deep roots. But frost is a threat, and Baettig said 60 percent of total production would be lost in 2022 because of it.

QUE SYRAH, SYRAH

Syrah and Mediterranean varieties in Chile once again rose to the top of our tastings this year, showing excellent compatibility with the country’s new dry-climate pattern. “For warm vintages, Mediterranean varieties feel more at home,” said Andrea Leon, the winemaker at Lapostolle winery in Colchagua Valley, who made the duo of the best-rated wines from this year’s report: the Lapostolle Apalta La Parcelle 8 Vielles Vignes 2018, from a century-old, ungrafted parcel, and the carmenere-based Clos Apalta Valle de Apalta 2019.

The Clos Apalta 2019 has the highest inclusion of carmenere (70 percent) over the last six years, mirroring the high quality of the harvest and giving the wine richness and full body delivered in an even and silky form with polished, chocolatey tannins.

KEEPING IT COOL IN LIMARI: Marcelo Papa of Concha y Toro on how La Niña affected the 2020 vintage.

Leon believes carmenere works well with the poor, granitic soils and the intense sunlight in Apalta, producing wines with an interesting texture and diversity.

Also coming from Apalta Valley but in only two hectares is the La Parcelle 8, one of the oldest cabernet sauvignon plots in Chile that was planted around 1915 and is now farmed biodynamically. The 2018 is full and tightly wound but precise, composed, and elegant, rendering a polished sensibility even on the nose.

Noelia Orts, the winemaker at Chile’s pioneering organic and biodynamic winery Emiliana, also pointed to the potential of syrah and Mediterranean grapes to rise above the recent weather patterns. “It is hard to notice any heat retention from these bush-trained Mediterranean varieties that are less exposed to sunburn,” she said. As the first biodynamically certified wine in South America, the Emiliana Valle de Colchagua Las Robles Estate Gê 2019 is a complex, vibrant and juicy expression from a higher percentage of syrah and carmenere. Cabernet sauvignon plays second fiddle.

Over the last few years, syrah has stayed high on our list of best-rated Chilean wines that also offer the greatest value. What is even more exciting is the diversity of syrah offerings in the country and their amenability to the various terroirs – from coastal areas such as Leyda and San Antonio Valley to Zapalla and the Aconcagua coast, to Casablanca, Apalta, Marchigue, Maipo, Maule and beyond.

For Cristobal Undurraga of the biodynamically farmed Viña Koyle, Mediterranean expressions showed impressively in 2020, with his Viña Koyle Alto Colchagua Cerro Basalto Los Lingues Vineyard 2020 and Viña Koyle Garnatxa Alto Colchagua Cerro Basalto Los Lingues Vineyard 2020 reflecting the trend of making finer, more transparent mountain wines with Mediterranean grapes.

“Drought and heat will change the landscape, and we have to be part of it to adapt,” said Undurraga, who added that biodynamic farming methods help to lessen the negative impacts of the heat. His Cerro Basalto range in general offers elegant and soft-spoken expressions of Mediterranean blends, all coming with purity, fine mineral austerity, tension and texture on the palate.

READ MORE: OUR TOP 100 WINES OF 2021

WHITHER CARMENERE?

Although Carmenere may have gone missing from Europe and its birthplace in Bordeaux, it is now one of Chile’s most emblematic wines – if not its signature grape. Each year, carmenere wines vie for a place among our top-rated Chilean bottles, and this year is no different, with many of our top picks coming from the 2019 vintage. Still, some winemakers in Chile believe carmenere wines have yet to reach their fullest expression in the country.

“I think carmenere has a lot of untapped potential as long as it stays on the path of searching for its own identity,” said Marcio Ramirez, the man behind all of Concha y Toro's carmeneres, including the flagship Concha y Toro Carmenere Peumo Carmin de Peumo. The 2019 version was probably the best vintage we have ever tasted. It came from a harvest that was much cooler than 2020 and was more similar to 2018, except with a colder April and May.

"The harvest was around the [usual] dates in late May,” Ramirez said. “The season presented a lower production than in 2018, caused primarily by smaller grapes with [more] balance and concentration.” He also said that the best carmenere in the country was becoming more terroir-specific, citing the Peumo-Pichidegua-Apalta triangle as being responsible for 80 percent of the great carmenere.

One of the top wines in the report is the Montes Carmenere Petit Verdot Valle de Colchagua Purple Angel 2019, which comes from Apalta and Marchigue. The layers of this voluptuous, concentrated, fresh carmenere, with an addition of 8 percent petit verdot from Apalta, are incredible.

Today, with one school of winemakers picking carmenere ever earlier to make a stand on fresher, spicier wines with greater linearity, Montes finds itself among the other group of winemakers who still pick carmenere at peak ripeness. With Aurelio Montes Sr.'s 50th vintage just around the corner, he told us that the golden rule he abides by now is not to spoil what the harvests give him.

“When the leaves turned red, it's the perfect time to pick carmenere, and the grape berries turn to an intense, purple color,” he said, which is why his top wine is called “Purple Angel.” Similarly, the name of Concha y Toro's Carmin de Peumo suggests the beautiful carmine color of carmenere’s leaves right before the harvest.

"The beautiful thing about carmenere is that it is one of the few grape varieties where the leaves’ color changes to carmine red. That's why I always say that the carmenere is very kind. When it's ready to harvest, its leaves turn red, telling us to harvest," said Marcio Ramirez.

Malbec turned out to be a well-kept secret from a dry, warm year, and we found a few surprises from our tastings. Some old-vine, dry-farmed malbecs from Colchagua perfectly fit the vintage. The Neyen Malbec Valle de Colchagua Espíritu de Apalta Limited Edition 2020, from vines over 100 years old, is one of the best from the vintage. Polkura and Montes are also delivering outstanding malbecs.

"The beauty is that malbec from Chile is totally different from Argentina," said Montes Sr.’s son, Aurelio Montes Jr., who reminded us that malbec arrived in Chile before it traveled to the other side of the Andes in the mid-19th Century. The Montes Malbec Valle de Colchagua Alpha 2020 is a brooding, vinous expression of malbec with great value, and hints at a bright future for the grape in Chile.

"Malbec is a great niche wine and shows the interesting aspect of Chile," said Bruchfeld of Polkura, who also triumphed in 2020 with his Polkura Malbec Valle de Colchagua Marchigue 2020, which shows impressive depth and focus, with flesh and purity.

READ MORE GREAT VALUE WINES: 8 CHILEAN CABERNET SAUVIGNON FOR UNDER $25

TERROIR’S IMPRINT

In Millahue, about 160 kilometers south of Santiago, the aspirational producer VIK has started to tap into the unique expressions of terroir by making their amphorae with local clay and toasty French barrels with local oak.

For Cristian Vallejo, the chief winemaker of VIK, using heir own amphorae means there is a unique terroir message transmitted to the wine. He calls it "amphoir” – a combination of "amphora" and "terroir."

Similarly, there is the concept of "Barroir," (“barrel” plus “terroir”) which involves toasting the French oak barrels, with the wood coming from the 67 hectares of 150-year-old-plus oak trees in the hills near their vineyard.

"It also helps us to get the level of toastiness we want," said Vallejo, who told us that he looks for the fine-grained barrels with tiny pores and lower toast levels so that they can leave wine a longer time in barrel. The Vik Valle de Cachapoal VIK 2019, a blend of 78 percent cabernet sauvignon and 22 percent cabernet franc, was partially aged in this type of oak barrel (55 percent new oak) for up to 26 months. The fresh layers with silky, sweet tannins, along with the exceptional length, define the wine.

Some of the Chilean wines we tasted were a mixed bag, including some sauvignon blancs, chardonnays and pinot noirs. Many Chilean pinots have become even fruitier, with a sweet-and-sour character that is incompatible with the finesse that we would normally seek from this variety. In Casablanca, the severe drought along with limited access to irrigation water have made 2020 a difficult vintage, and leafroll virus is part of why pinot is showing a little less typicity, according to Ricardo Baettig, who also reported that they have replanted some 50 hectares of pinot noir in Casablanca over the last few years.

We also tasted about 300 wines from Chile’s 2021 vintage. Among them were 135 reds, which were crunchier and fruitier wines that should be consumed more for their freshness than their complexity. Some winemakers reported that 2021 looks like the opposite of 2020. Leon of Lapostolle said she considered it a “Burgundy year.”  

 “It started extremely dry, but we had a lot of rain in August and September,” she said. “Spring was hot and extreme with a nice flowering. But on Feb. 1, there was a downpour. In Apalta, we had 67 millimeters of rain in two days.”

As a result, Leon said, Lapostolle’s wines are fresh and spicy with higher acidity and lower alcohol, and there is freedom to extract more.

We expect to taste more 2021s next year to gain a more panoramic view of the vintage. But our focus in this report, the 2020 vintage, wonderfully captured Chilean winemakers’ quest to highlight freshness, elegance and finesse. They mostly pulled it off with wines of consistent quality that seamlessly fit the country’s new, variable and even more challenging climatic pattern. Viva Chile.

– Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor