Chile Annual Report: Terroir, Tension and Drinkability

The importance of wine branding and marketing cannot be overstated in Chile. With a strong emphasis on exports and the dominance of large conglomerates, most of the tastings of the midsize and big wineries James and I did during our recent trip there involved a sequence of various lines and levels of any one winery’s offerings before culminating in the presentation of their "icon" wines – usually prestigious cuvees whose branding the winery often views as paramount.

However, we found a subtle shift among the top-scoring, 95-point-plus wines, with producers now aiming to make bottles that highlight specific terroirs that invoke a stronger sense of place, whether it's a single vineyard or a smaller parcel. These are the wines that speak to our senses with their uniqueness, tension and excellent drinkability.

In the Limari Valley wine region, Viña Tabali stands out for their stunning wines, which encapsulate the singularity of their limestone-rich terroir. During my tasting with viticulturist Hector Rojas and winemaker Felipe Muller in Santiago, I was blown away by their chardonnays and pinot noirs from Talinay. With their saline, savory nature and superbly chalky, mealy texture, these wines prioritize the sense of place above all else.

Winemaker Felipe Muller described Talinay as the crown jewel of Limari, highlighting the uniqueness of the terroir – sand and decomposed granitic soils mixed with quartz on an ancient marine terrace just 12 kilometers from the ocean. Tabalí’s top chardonnay is an extreme expression of the place.

The Tabalí Chardonnay Valle de Limarí Caliza 2022 is from a selection of vines within the 3.7-hectare Talinay vineyard that has an even higher concentration of limestone in its soils. The high limestone content imparts a unique texture to the palate, characterized by a mealy and chalky tension and focusing on the shells and bones of the place rather than the fruit and flesh of the grape variety. It is a unique, extremely gastronomic chardonnay with delicious salinity, offering pungent limey and briny notes reminiscent of seashells, iodine and sea urchins.

Because of drought, water availability has become the key to survival for many vineyards in Chile, especially in the north, and regions like Limari and Casablanca Valley have been severely threatened over the last few years. Many producers have stopped their projects, with some even abandoning their vineyards. The ones that remain are dependent on irrigation.

This, in turn, has led to a change in the taste of their wines, with the delicious salinity found in Tabali’s chardonnays largely derived from the irrigated water from the nearby Limari River. Tabali balances the salinity from the irrigated water with “agua dulce,” or “sweet water,” from water wells to keep chloride amounts in check.

Their top pinot noir, meanwhile, is savory, complex and almost Barolo-like. The Tabalí Pinot Noir Valle de Limarí Pai 2020 is by no means driven by fruit and flesh, but rather by the expressive energy of the terroir’s rocks and minerality. “The place is so strong that the expression of the terroir is way beyond the grape varieties,” said Rojas, the viticulturalist.

The terroir-specific focus is also evident in Chile’s syrahs. The perfect-scoring Clos du Lican Apalta 2021, for example, comes from a vineyard nestled in granite-rich soils with a southeast-facing exposure. The impressive 10-hectare plot of syrah vines was planted in 2004 and 2005 by the team headed by Bournet Lapostolle viticulturist Igor Jimenez and chief winemaker Andrea Leon, and that plot is emphasized on the wine’s label, rather than the grape variety.

While Leon describes herself as “Rhone-esque,” we believe the Clos du Lican Apalta 2021 captures the Mediterranean essence of the granite-rich soils. The wine exudes an alluring, pure bouquet of violets and lavender, intertwined with garrigues and black licorice notes.

We also gave their flagship wine, the carmenere-based Clos Apalta Valle de Apalta 2021, a perfect score. These two wines together with the third Chilean wine we gave 100 points to, the VIK Valle de Cachapoal VIK 2021, show how the cooler, cloudier 2021 vintage will likely become one of the top years for reds from Chile’s Central Valley, promising finesse, layers and precision over the extremely sunny, bombastic fruit.

For the VIK 2021, it wasn’t just the vintage that brought out the best in the wine. VIK owner Alex Vik and winemaker Cristian Vallejo made it clear during our tastings with them that they are pursuing more precision and finesse in their bottlings, and cabernet franc now predominates over cabernet sauvignon in the wine.

Last year, when I tasted the pre-bottled sample of cabernet franc for the VIK 2021 with Vallejo, it was already stunning at an embryonic stage, showing less plushness, richness and baby fat but more depth, precision and tension. “Now we have a better understandings of our terroir and I believe that cabernet franc makes the best interpretation of our terroir with minerality, vibrancy and tension,” he said.

CRISTIAN VALLEJO GOES DEEP ON FOREST AGING

VIK also takes a holistic approach to viticulture and winemaking. The VIK Cachapoal Stone VIK 2023, for example, is aged in VIK's own amphorae on a slope within a mountain forest in the Millahue Valley, where the trees create a dome of shade. The site's “special energy” was activated by a shaman, according to Vik and Vallejo.

The wine is pristine and botanical, showcasing plenty of local herbs and dark fruit. The palate is well structured, with density and polish but without the heat from 2023, which was an extremely warm and challenging year for the Central Valley. It was also a year when Itata and some parts of Maule had fires and some wines were affected by smoke taint.

VINTAGE VARIATIONS WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

For Chile, climatic differences are huge across the regions, from the very north to the south and from the coast to the mountains, and viticulturists and winemakers often differ in their opinions about the quality of any one vintage. But what people in the Central Valley tend to agree on is their love for 2021 and 2022.

While the 2021 reds show balance, finesse and linearity, adding class and elegance to a generally sunny Mediterranean disposition, the 2022s are a little fuller and are arguably fruitier and more concentrated while remaining fresh due to the overall cool and dry conditions of that year.

Apalta, for example, experienced cooler temperatures in 2022 and 317.1 millimeters of rainfall, lower than the historical average of 600-plus millimeters, with an average temperature of 14.3 degrees Celsius (58 Fahrenheit).

In Puente Alto in the Maipo Valley, it was also relatively cool but much drier, with an average temperature of 17.7 Celsius (2.2 percent below average) and just around 120 millimeters of rainfall, according to statistics kept by Viñedo Chadwick. In the Aconcagua Valley, it was even drier, with the Seña winery recording just 75 millimeters of rainfall, resulting in a slightly lower yield and higher fruit concentration.

A few winemakers I talked to use the word “normal” to describe the climate of 2022, even though years of drought have redefined what “rainy” is. What is certain is that climate change has given Chile more vintage variations.

“In the past, 500 millimeters of rain was normal and now maybe it is better to say 400 millimeters of rain is normal,” said Montes viticulturist Rodrigo Barria. “But this year we have already had 800 millimeters in Apalta.”

Many winemakers struggled to pick a favorite between 2021 and 2022, but Cristobal Undurraga, the founder and technical director for Viña Koyle, said he liked 2022 more because of its greater freshness and lower natural yield. His 2022 wines, from the biodynamically farmed Los Lingues vineyard in Alto Colchagua, were among the best I tasted from the vintage.

“We had a longer winter and spring where there was more rain between June of 2021 to October of 2021,” Undurraga said of the conditions leading up to the ’22 harvest. “That’s crucial for the balance of the wine.”

While 2022 certainly helped Viña Koyle deliver some of the most soulful wines I’ve ever tasted from then, in particular the awe-inspiring Viña Koyle Garnatxa Alto Colchagua Cerro Basalto Los Lingues Vineyard 2022, which clearly stood out with its incredible tension, iron notes and ethereal and peppery fruit, the real highlight of my tasting with Undurraga was the Viña Koyle Valle de Colchagua Los Lingues Auma 2020, their flagship cuvee from the very warm and dry 2020. It was hard to believe that the wine showed such precision, length and raciness without the warmth from the vintage.

“Warm vintages are very challenging, but the six varieties in the 2020 Auma were all picked by March before the onset of Covid in Chile,” Undurraga said, adding that the grapes were sourced from the rockiest parcels in Los Lingues vineyard. Minimal extraction was employed to maintain nuanced complexity and austere minerality in the wine.

After aging for 24 months in barrels, the 2020 Auma was blended and further aged in concrete eggs for another nine months. The wine showcases complexity, persistent length and fibrous tannins. Undurraga attributed the wine's uniqueness to the precision at harvest time and the resilience of the carmenere vines in his biodynamically farmed vineyards in Los Lingues. Despite adverse weather conditions in 2020, this is the best Auma to date, and the wine will be available for sale through La Place de Bordeaux starting in September.

During my four-day expedition in the Itata region, at the southern end of Chile’s wine-producing zone, my focus was on exploring a different Chile, where drought is less of an issue. The rolling hills and cloudy mornings reminded me of Piedmont, Italy, and the wines are more Bojo-like, accentuating drinkability, freshness and lightness. Here, the battle for supremacy between the more rustic pais, derived from ancient and gnarled vines, and the younger and vibrant, fruit-forward cinsault is currently unfolding.

At the top of my tasting list were the pais wines made by producers such as De Martino, Leonardo Erazo, Morande, Ana Maria Cumsille and Roberto Henriquez in Bio-Bio. Descriptors like “nervy,” “wild,” “white pepper funk,” “grilled grapefruit” and even “peated“ or “smoked agave” are often found in my tasting notes for these offerings, some of which comes from ancient vines over 120 years old.

PEDRO PARRA ON HIS 'MILES' VINEYARD

Interestingly, the addition of whole clusters in the making of these wines was very restrained, at around 10 percent or even less, as the tannins in pais are already rustic and the pH levels relatively higher. Whole clusters and stems seem to work better in the more laid-back and fruitier, rounder cinsault, which helps to “kill” the excessive fruit and flesh, according to the renowned terroir specialist and consultant Pedro Parra, who makes some of the best cinsaults in Guarilihue.

Like Parra and De Martino, Leonardo Erazo, who seeks minerality and fragility in both of his inspiring pais and cinsault wines, is one of the few producers in Itata who actually own vineyards. Unfortunately, he lost about two hectares of vines in Guarilihue in the wildfire in 2023.

Parra’s best wines are his fabulous cinsaults. His top bottle, the Pedro Parra y Familia Valle de Itata Newk 2022, is probably the most distinctively mineral and energetic wine from him in 2022, with a little less flesh than the more well-rounded Pedro Parra y Familia Valle de Itata Miles 2022.

Parra draws a comparison between his “Miles” vineyard and the famous “Rumbo al Norte” vineyard in Gredos, Spain, that is used to make otherworldly garnachas for Comando G, a project he is involved as soil consultant. Both have complex granitic soils rich in silt, quartz, sand and iron. Parra acknowledges that he sometimes has to restrain the flesh and fruit in the more complex Miles, but that for the sharper and more incisive Newk he seeks a bit more flesh, just like Comando G’s mineral Tumba del Rey Moro.

“I like wines with tension, austerity and verticality. So I like places with higher elevation with a lot of quartz that will help keep the austerity of the wine with less soil and more stones,” Parra said. “For my cinsaults, the secret is to find more silt and quartz but avoid clay. The iron and quartz give tension, and silt provides energy, chalkiness and finesse.”

THE CHALLENGE OF PAIS

For pais, producers need to be careful with the use of whole clusters since the tannins are more rustic. Ana Maria Cumsille, the new head winemaker of Chile’s oldest winery, Viña Carmen, who also runs her own personal project in Itata, considers pais to be the most challenging grape she has ever worked with. “It is a very light, transparent grape, very sensitive to place and has rustic tannins. It is also an unforgiving variety for mistakes,” she said, adding that it’s difficult to get great tension and acidity out of pais.

Her excellent Ana María Cumsille País Valle de Itata Aguila Vino de Parcela 2022 comes from the granitic soils mixed with clay in the cooler part of Ranquil that give the wine more depth and less rusticity.

At its best, the rustic pais tannin reminds me of the Barolo tannin. In fact, De Martino winemaker Nicolas Perez believes that pais has the potential to make wines similar to Barolos – although he admits that’s a big statement.

“We just need to better understand the variety and the place,” he said, as I tasted his striking De Martino Valle de Itata Guarilihue Las Olvidadas 2022.

Despite the potential high quality Itata’s ancient, gnarled pais vines offer, much of the old-vine fruit sells for only about 20 or 30 cents per kilo, and some producers have grafted other Mediterranean varieties onto pais in an attempt to improve their grape stocks and finances.

“Although pais has a long history in Chile, it just started flourishing only a decade or so ago,” said Ricardo Baettig, the head winemaker of Morande, whose Morandé País Valle de Itata Adventure Colinas de Ranquil 2022 is a great value buy that shows the potential of the best paises from Itata.

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Of course, there are many other grape varieties in Itata worth mentioning, such as moscatel, chasselas and even San Francisco. One of the top wines I tasted from Itata was a malbec sourced from rare, 200-year old vines, the Ana María Cumsille Malbec Valle de Itata Cipres Vino de Parcela 2022. There were also exciting petit verdot, grenache and mourvedre offerings that came from vines grafted onto the old vine pais in the Piedra Lisa vineyard of P.S. Garcia – all unique, terroir wines that superbly express old-vine intensity and freshness.

From a commercial standpoint, the sale of Chilean wine is at a low ebb now, both domestically and internationally, especially in terms of sales to China. In 2023, Chile saw a drastic plunge in wine exports, with some brands experiencing a staggering 30 percent decrease. Unfortunately, the outlook for 2024 does not appear any more promising. Ignacio Edwards, the second-generation proprietor of Luis Felipe Edwards, estimates that another 15,000 hectares of vines will soon be pulled due to overproduction. “In total, there might be close to 30,000 hectares of vines to be pulled, and that’s more than 20 percent of the vineyards,” he said. However, the demand for high-end wines is still strong, so top producers remain positive because they are making some of their best wines ever.

Despite the challenging situation, the growing diversity, uniqueness and strong identities of the country’s many producers, beyond the prominent brands and big companies, provide a stable base for consistently excellent, and great value, wines. Better bottles are being made throughout the country, and the possibilities for individuality, tension and drinkability from the flourishing terroir wines are boundless.

– Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor

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.