Chile

It is thought that viticulture was introduced to Chile (in South America) by Spanish conquistadores, presumably arriving via Peru. The first vines were planted by Don Francisco de Aguirre in La Serena, in 1551. A few years later, his son-in-law Juan Jufré introduced vines in the Valle Central, close to Santiago. The first grape varieties were Spanish, the Albilho, Moscatel, País (identical with the historic Mission grape) and Torontel. The original intention was to produce wine locally for communion, but mass production of basic wines also took place, and these were exported to Peru and Mexico. In 1578, Francis Drake (1540-1596) captured a ship that was loaded with 1.770 bags of wine being shipped from Chile to Peru. Increasingly, the Chilean wines became competitors to European wines. For this reason, the Spanish royal house in 1620 prohibited the planting of any further vines in Chile, in order to protect the wine trade between Spain and North America. In 1830, the Chilean government (now an independent state) opened the agricultural experimental station Quinta Normal. Naturalist Claudio Gay was the first to import European grape varieties, and experimented with them at the station. By 1850, the station had 40.000 vines of 70 different varieties. In 1851, Bertrand Silvestre Ochagavia Echazareta was the first to bring in the noble varieties of Bordeaux, these included Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot. Chile again started to export wine, and at the world exhibition in Paris in 1889 a Chilean wine was awarded a Grand Prix. In 1938, the government introduced a form of Prohibition. No new vineyards were allowed to be planted, production of wine was limited to a maximum of 60 litres per capita, and taxes on wine were drastically increased in an attempt to reduce the abuse of alcohol. This led to stagnation in the wine industry. The ban on new plantings was only lifted in 1974. This led to a huge upswing in the wine industry. Spanish wine maker Miguel Torres (see there), who established a wine estate near Curicó in 1978, played an important part in this. He was the first to introduce modern cellar technology, such as stainless steel tanks and small barriques to Chile.

From around 1985, many new vineyards were established, and European grape varieties were imported. Numerous joint ventures with Californian, French and German partners brought about a significant improvement in quality. In 2000, the total area planted with vines was 170.000 hectares, but this produced only 6,4 million hectolitres of wine. Of the total figure, only around 115.000 hectares were used for viticulture around 55.000 hectares are used to produce the base wines for distillation used in the production of Pisco brandy, and for the production of table grapes. The specific, isolated geographical location of Chile (the Pacific ocean to the west, the Andes with permanent snow and frost in the East) has meant that phylloxera has never been able to take a hold in Chile. It is also assumed that any examples of phylloxera will have been killed off by the traditional form of irrigation (used particularly in the north, where there is very little rainfall) – this involves flooding the vineyards. The Incas were the first to install a comprehensive system of canals, which allowed them to irrigate 1,2 million hectares of land. For this reason, Chile even today has vast areas of ungrafted vines. The most widely planted grape variety is Pais, which makes up a quarter of the vineyard area, this is used only to make very simple and basic table wines, usually sold in five-litre bag-in-boxes or jugs, or in tetrapaks; these wines are not exported to Europe. Quality wines are made from the international varities (see table). The variety called Sauvignon Blanc here is not identical with genuine Sauvignon Blanc (see under Sauvignon Vert). The variety is also called Sauvignonasse, and is increasingly being supplanted by the „real” Sauvignon.

Grape varieties (2005):

Variety Synonyms - Remark Colour Hectares % share

Cabernet Sauvignon red 40.441 35
País (Negra Peruana) red 23.000 20
Merlot red 13.142 11,5
Sauvignon Blanc (Sauvignon Vert) white 8.379 7,3
Chardonnay white 8.156 7,1
Carmenère red 6.489 5,7
Muscat d´Alexandrie white 6.026 5,3
Syrah red 2.988 2,6
Pinot Noir red 1.361 1,2
Cabernet Franc red 1.099 1,0
Malbec (Côt) red 1.014 0,9
Riesling white 305 0,3
Viognier white 222 0,2
Gewürztraminer white 191 0,2
TOTAL RED VARIETIES 86.790 76
TOTAL WHITE VARIETIES 27.658 24



The vineyards are mainly located at the foot of the Andes mountains, to the west of the mountains, in high-lying river vallies at altitudes of 600 to 1.000 metres above sea level, most of them in the Valle Central wine-growing region. The vineyards stretch in a narrow band parallel to the mountains over a distance of some 1.300 kilometres. The grape harvest generally begins in early February, and may even start as early as late January. The wine-growing regions are divided into Atacama and Coquimbo in the north (where irrigation is essential), bordering in the south on Aconcagua with Casablanca, the Valle Central (central valley) with Curicó, Maipo, Maule and Rapel as well as Bío-Bío and Itata in the south (Sur = south), where rainfall is plentiful. The Pais grape dominates in the south, mainly country wines are produced here. Maipo is considered to be the best region for quality wine, it is located around 100 kilometres south of the capital Santiago. In total, there are only about 60 wine estates, some of which are enormous in size. An estate with ”only” 100 hectares of vineyard is considered to be small, even a boutique winery. Some of the estates planted extensive new vineyards in the 1990’s, and some of these areas are not yet in production. Almost all the estates buy in grapes. Important producers include Almaviva, Canepa, Carmen, Carta Vieja, Casa Lapostolle, Concha y Toro, Errázuriz (Caliterra, Arboleda), Los Vascos, Montes, San Pedro, Santa Ines, Santa Monica, Santa Rita, Tarapaca, Terranoble, Torres, Undurraga, Valdivieso, Veramonte and Viu Manent.

Law 464, a new, fairly simple and straightforward wine law was introduced in 1995, this defines the areas of origin for grapes very precisely. If the grapes for a wine are sourced from one of these regions, it may state the Denominación de Origen on the label. However, this is proof or the origin of the grapes only, and does not say anything about the quality of the wine. Quality wines must have a minimum alcohol content of 11,5% vol (The Bio-Bio region is an exception, with special permission these wines may go as low as 10,5% vol). Chaptalisation of musts using sugar is prohibited, but acidification is permitted. In total, 12 white and 13 red varieties may be stated on the label (however not the archaic variety País) if the wine contains a minimum of 75% of this variety, however this is not obligatory. The 75% rule also applies to the mention of a vintage on the label. The balance of the grapes may be sourced from outside Chile. Terms frequently used on labels include Reserva, Gran Reserva, Reserva Especial, Reserva Privada, Gran Vino, Selección and Superior, these can be used entirely at the discretion of the producer, there are no regulations applicable to them. The term Pisco refers to a type of brandy produced in the region of the same name in the Zona Pisquera, these are produced in accordance with specific regulations.