WHAT'S HOT IN CHILE?

In a country marked by change, winemakers are pushing boundaries to uncover the potential of their wines. Peter Richards MW shines a light on the latest developments in both vineyard and winery, profiling some of the exciting projects driving current trends

-  Peter Richards

The only thing that is constant, Greek philosopher Heraclitus reminds us, is change. The Chilean wine industry seems to be taking this maxim to extremes – a wine scene seemingly stuck on fast-forward, buckled into a thrilling rollercoaster ride of discovery, exploration, reinvention and experimentation.

So when Gillmore winemaker Andrés Sánchez tells me that ‘the idea is to change the Chilean wine scene completely in the next 30 years’, it doesn’t sound far-fetched. It sounds exciting.

Change is evident in many aspects of Chilean life. This year is the 10-year anniversary of the massive earthquake of 2010, and 2020 has been marked not just by Covid-19 but also protests at social inequality. The younger generation, who never knew military rule under Pinochet, are starting to make their voices heard in what is a largely conservative society. Earthquakes in Chile come in both geological and metaphorical form, and the appetite for change is also spurring winemakers on to new heights.