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 Felipe
Díaz’s decision was obvious. At most,
the main doubt could have been on whether to plant more hectares
of chardonnay or of sauvignon Blanc. To any connoisseur of
the wine Chilean environment at the end of the 90’s,
it was clear-cut that Díaz had to fill his country
property, Loma Larga, with white varieties.
That was the reason why the agricultural property his family
had acquired was situated in the Herat of Casablanca
valley.
Nevertheless, the commercial engineer made an illogic move.
Not only did he plant the valley’s classic white grapes,
but he also began colonizing his country property with grapevines
of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, malbec, pinot
noir and syrah. All in all, almost 30 hectares of red varieties
were planted in Casablanca.
“We wanted to do something unique that differ in
character from the classic Chilean wine. In the country there
was no previous experience of red wine in cold weather; however,
in other countries, some of the best red wines are produced
in this kind of areas. Commercially, there was an opportunity
to obtain higher prices per box than the national average,”
evokes Felipe Díaz, CEO at Loma Larga Vineyards.
Many anticipated a total failure of what was in theory
an interesting idea. In Chile, in those
days, the reds were synonym of the warm central valleys. In
those regions they thrive without major difficulties, thus
making it possible to obtain good volumes per hectare. Cold
zones necessarily imply smaller productions.
In spite of this, and after many years of trial and error,
Díaz started with cabernet sauvignon and merlot, and
then, Loma Larga came out with a remarkable
performance team: syrah, malbec, cabernet franc and
pinot noir varieties.
It is not surprising that in the 2008 edition of Descorchados
wine guide, their cabernet franc obtained 93 points, and the
title segment’s king “other reds.”
Commercially, Díaz’s idea works even better.
The boxes of Loma Larga wine reds have an average value of
90 American dollars, quite more than the usual prices in Chilean
shipments.
Felipe Díaz is not alone anymore.
At present, most vineyards are planning to plant reds in coastal
areas like Casablanca, or Limarí, or southern areas
such as Biobío. Some others are already doing it. Although
this was unthinkable a decade ago, today it has set the trend
in the Chilean wine industry.
International demand
According
to Adolfo Hurtado, enologist and business
manager of Cono Sur vineyards, behind the
peak in cold weather red wines there is an important turn
in the taste of international customers.
" There is a massive tendency to consume more fresh and
elegant wines. There is an increased demand on them, and people
are looking for wines with less concentration and over-extraction,”
explains Hurtado.
Meanwhile, Felipe García, enologist
in Casas del Bosque, highlights the fact
that Chile has much to win with this new international tendency.
"With the new cold weather reds, our country is making
world class wines, which are friendly with meals. This is
a gourmet segment, and is not yet so widely spread in the
world; instead, is growing in a slow but sharp way,”
affirms García.
- And how does this demand relate to the cold weather?
- It’s simple, the lower temperatures in coastal
and southern areas limits the increase of sugar in the grape,
and this causes the production of less alcoholic wines. At
the same time, the maturity of berries takes longer than in
warmer zones. In cold regions, the enologists can wait for
the grapes tannins to reach their full development, thus obtaining
wines with a less aggressive character.
The icing on the cake is that grapes increase their acidity,
thus making the wines fresher.
" Generally, cold weather reds have a very interesting
expression of aromas, they are very expressive,”
says Paula Cárdenas, enologist at
Matetic vineyards, located near the city
of Rosario, between Casablanca and San Antonio.
Since the international market is saturated with ultra-powerful
and concentrated red wines, it is not difficult to understand
why consumers look for more elegant products.
The ship’s figurehead
Undoubtedly, point noir is the stock by which Chilean vineyards
were mostly stimulated to look with new eyes at the coastal
and the southern regions for the production of their reds.
This delicious stock only grows under fresh weather conditions,
and at present it is one of the most demanded internationally.
This success can be partly explained by the public interest
it raised because of the successful movie "Sideways”
With such an active world demand, the commercial interest
in this stock grows fast.
Córpora Wines, a company owned by
Pedro Ibáñez, became the oenological
company with the greatest pinot noir surface area in the southern
hemisphere, with more than 300 hectares. Ibáñez
bet on Biobío’s cold rainy valley.
Several hundred miles north, in Casablanca,
Felipe García gives us a clearly exemplifies
the attraction exerted by point noir.
"Our vineyard has sold to zero all its pinot. We
are now working on a project of strongly augmenting our production
by 2012. Whatever is good-quality Chilean production has strong
demand.” Explains García.
According to Alberto Antonini, an Italian
flying winemaker, Chilean pinot has very good prospects.
"I think we find lands here that can give good pinots
but also, if properly worked, pinots that can rank among the
best of the world without much difficulty. From what I know
in Leyda, I can say that, even if it is very good, it has
only reached half its potential. For instance, if the plantations
were made in high-density, a major advance would be achieved,”
says Antonini
But this Chile of the cold reds does not only live on pinot
noir. Syrah is also giving to talk about.
Unlike his relatives from central valleys, with strong body
and more alcohol, in regions like San Antonio, Casablanca
and Limarí, the syrah variety develops
a more subtle, fresh and spicy personality.
"The critics welcome these characteristics very well.
They tend to be more similar to French syrah varieties than
to Australian ones, because of their elegance,” ads
Paula Cárdenas
Again, it is not surprising that in Descorchados 2008,
six out of nine of the best varieties of syrah came from valleys
with marine influence, such as Limarí, San
Antonio or Casablanca.
This is the reason why in the Chilean wine industry there
is a feeling that the best is yet to come.
"Many companies are seriously working in cold weather
red wines. Undoubtedly, this phenomenon will be the boom in
the coming years,” says Jean Charles Villard,
enologist at Villard vineyard.
Special treatment
It is clear-cut: the production of cold weather reds is more
complicated. More humidity augments the possibility of fungous
infections. And it is also needed to reduce the amount of
grapes per hectare. “In cold weathers you can
never obtain the 12 thousand kilos per hectare you can get
in the central valleys. In the best cases you can amount 8
thousand kilos,” explains Rodrigo Romero,
enologist at Porta de Viñedos Corpora
Eduardo
Moraga Vásquez.
June 20th, 2008
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