Chilean wine production dates back more than 400 years. Spanish colonists, quick to recognize the terrain as ideal for viticulture, were the first to plant vines in the valleys that would come to define Chilean wine regions. They started with País, which would be the primary grape for Chilean wine for the next 300 years, until globetrotting Chileans, flush from the country’s agricultural and mining riches, brought home French vines to grow their favorite Bordeaux varieties.
The best Chilean wines now include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. The signature grape for Chilean red wine is Carmenère, fruity, spicy and low in tannins. Chile’s Carmenère vines came from their native France, where they would be wiped out by the phylloxera root louse in the late 1800s. Chilean winemakers originally assumed the vines were Merlot; it was not until 1994 that scientists proved many of them were in fact Carmenère, alive and well in Chile.
Chilean vineyards are surrounded and protected by the Andes mountains, the Pacific Ocean and the Atacama desert, making the vineyards phylloxera-resistant and the envy of viticulturists around the world. Most vineyards are in the valleys that run down the central section of the country, from 50 miles north of the capital, Santiago, to approximately 150 miles south. Thanks to ideal growing conditions, as well as recent significant investment from international winemakers, Chile today produces acclaimed wines at tremendous value.
From north to south, the principal Chilean wine-growing areas are the Aconcagua Valley; the Casablanca Valley; the famous Maipo Valley, which has vineyards within sight of downtown Santiago; the Rancagua and Colchagua districts; Curicó Valley; and the Maule Valley. Most of the growing regions areas are dry, irrigated by the melting snow of the Andes.
