How long does it take for an emerging wine region to move on from being the cute new kid on the block, get past that rocky adolescent period, and become a lovely young thing, full of ideas, with just the right amount of maturity?
Taking account of all the variables, I reckon a generation – a little more than two decades – should make or break a new wine region.
Back in 1994, Chile wasn't yet the cute kid, but it was beginning to succeed as a highly pleasing child and some part of that child was even then planning its adventurous teenage years.
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What Chile gave the world then was good-value, fresh and zippy Sauvignons (often, mistakenly, the blander Sauvignonasse variety), oaky, fruit-driven Chardonnays, plummy Merlots (often Carmenère) and juicy Cabernets. They were lapped up by supermarkets in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe, and the U.S. – initially cautious – soon took to these easy-drinking wines, which arrived in the stores at cracking prices and gave their California equivalents a run for their money.
Most consumers were not that aware of where they came from, unless they paid attention to clever back labels featuring a map of that long, thin country; but they didn't care, these were simply good drinking wines.
By the turn of the century, there was rapid development in Chile, not only in new wineries and vast plantings, but in the wines too.
Most established wineries already had a reserve range, but they were beginning to develop terroir selections too, from fruit grown in better sites, with lower yields, more careful handling of the fruit, and aged in better-quality oak. These wines were harder to sell (and harder to find) but, if you had the chance to taste them at the time, they spoke of a higher-quality future. Icon wines had yet to really hit the market, and the best fruit went into wines such as the Montes Alpha range, Santa Rita's Triple C, or Casa Lapostolle's Cuvée Alexandre wines. At the time they retailed at around £7-£9 in the U.K. (about $15-$18 in the U.S.), beyond what most people were prepared to pay for Chilean wines then but, boy, they tasted good and there was a sense that maybe they could age.
In the past few years I've drunk several reds from vintages 1995 to 2001, and have been consistently surprised at how well they have aged. At 10-to-15 years old they have evolved into silky reds, maintaining that hallmark Chilean depth of fruit, but the once-overtly spicy oak has toned down and integrated into the whole. They are, in short, delightful to drink, mature red wines.
By the mid-2000s, the adolescent Chile was into experimentation on every level, from grape to glass, but it was in marketing that the teenager stumbled.
Two divergent movements emerged – often from the same wineries. A huge sales push confirmed Chile as a super-reliable supplier of middle-of-the-road, good-value (ergo, cheap) varietal wines and at the top end there were the icon wines that won plaudits and awards (Errazuriz with Seña and Don Maximiano, Concha y Toro with the Rothschild joint venture Almaviva, and Montes with the M Cabernet and Montes Folly Syrah). But a strong image for the country's wines never materialized, leaving interested wine lovers – loath to pay the vast prices of icon wines – looking elsewhere for quality offerings.
A decade later and much has happened to improve the quality of Chile's wines. The hillsides of the Coastal Mountains' side valleys have been further developed (the famous horseshoe-shaped Apalta enclave of Colchagua has been almost fully planted, for example), along with more sites on the foothills of the Andes to the east.
Coastal areas have developed, like Leyda, just south of Casablanca, and coastal Colchagua; areas previously deemed much too risky for ripening or for being frost-prone, a fear borne out in the 2014 vintage. As well as going east and west of the main Central Valley growing area, vineyards spread north and south. In the north Limarí and Elqui, known previously for growing grapes to make into the spirit Pisco, are now well established for Syrah, Chardonnay and more.
And in the south, varieties like Carignan and Cinsault are being rediscovered, with wineries making new arrangements with the traditional grape farmers there, at last valuing these grapes from effectively organically farmed, unirrigated old vineyards in the Maule and Itata valleys.
In the winery, the oak message has got through. "Use less of it," has been the cry from far and wide over the past five years and the Chileans are listening, at last.
Brett Jackson of Valdivieso winery told me: "We are reinventing ourselves." And this was echoed by producers at a recent trade tasting in London – although there were also admissions that the country had effectively shot itself in the foot by continually pushing large quantities of inexpensive varietal wines and failing to establish an image.
It seems that for the past five years Chile has been poised on the edge of adulthood, yet we are still waiting for it to happen. It seems unsure which direction to move in just now. Could terroir selections provide the hook? Possibly, but the consumer appears unready. What about organics? There is growth but, considering Chile has a much lower risk of vine disease than most wine producing countries, it seems strange that this movement is not stronger. Can the few excellent boutique wineries make their mark and help raise the quality image? Are blends the answer rather than single varietal wines?
In my view, the producers need to prove themselves with stronger offerings of both single varietal reds and blends, with which they excel, priced $25-$50, between the reserve ranges and the icon wines. These wines deliver more fruit and more flavor for your dollar than those from many of Chile's competitors. For now, it's a vicious circle: the importers appear cautious to take on such wines, so few producers make enough of them, preferring to take bigger yields to supply lower-value markets, and retain the very best fruit for tiny quantities of the icon wines.
Chile needs to demonstrate to wine lovers, wary of paying the $25-plus price, that wines at this level are not only great current drinking for those who enjoy big reds, but that they can evolve convincingly into something more subtle. This wine country has everything in place to be a grown-up, but it lacks confidence in its own message and that makes it hard to convince the market to trust it.
Wink’s Chilean Red Tips ($25-$50, listed in price order)
2011 Koyle Royale Carmenère, Los Lingues, Colchagua
Koyle Family Vineyards was created by the Undurraga family when they sold the eponymous family company in 2006. This Carmenère is from their main Los Lingues vineyard, located on the Andes side of Colchagua. Biodynamic farming helps the rocky volcanic soils on the hillsides to express themselves in this gorgeous young Carmenère, with 9 percent Petit Verdot and 6 percent Malbec added for better structure and complexity. No question that this will age.
2011 Casa Tamaya T Limited Release Syrah, Limarí
Planting in 1997 Tamaya was one of the early wineries to be established in the Limarí area, and as others there, has enjoyed success particularly with Syrah, which seems to benefit from the wide day-night temperature differences. The new "T" range from Tamaya shows a good step up in quality for the winery and while firm and showing quite high alcohol now, it will develop over several years.
2012 Matetic EQ Pinot Noir, Casablanca
One of the pioneering biodynamic vineyards, based on the borders of Leyda and Casablanca, this vintage of its EQ Pinot Noir comes from very low yields off a young vineyard just 10km (six miles) from the ocean. Meticulous winemaking has produced a smoky, stylish and energetic Pinot Noir, giving every reason to drink now, but it will still repay keeping a few years.
2010 Montgras "Ninquén Mountain Vineyard", Colchagua
The Ninquén hilltop vineyard was planted in the 1990s by the Gras family in the heart of the Coastal Mountains in Colchagua. The top wine, from a blend of Syrah and Cabernet in varying amounts, is a consistent Chilean classic. The blend in 2010 is 75 percent Cabernet and 25 percent Syrah with eucalyptus flavors showing through from the Cabernet.
2010 Ventisquero Vertice, Apalta, Colchagua
Not far from Ninquén, the Apalta vineyards are known for their excellent red blends, and Vertice, with its equal shares of Carmenère and Syrah, lives up to the valley’s fame. Here, the blend is not only of grapes, but of the philosophies of two winemakers: Ventisquero’s Felipe Tosso and Australian John Duval, the former chief winemaker from Penfolds. The result is a very powerful wine, but once again showing good value and aging potential of at least a decade.
