Vistamar Merlot 2015

About Chilean Wines

Chile is a New World wine region and a significant player being the 5^th largest exporter of wine in the world. While known for producing quality wines at value price points, wines from the region have also occasionally been awarded top places at international wine competitions.

The geography and climate of Chile is interesting for wine making in that there are dramatic changes from East to West and North to South. You have the Pacific Ocean running along the West coast bringing in cool ocean breezes. Along the Eastern side of the country’s border are elevated vineyards in the Andes mountain ranges; and in between the two you have warm valleys. Of course, in the North-South direction you have a major difference in latitude between the most northerly and southerly points. With a vast array of different wine growing conditions, Chile has shown that it can produce various varietals and different styles of wine.

In the warmer and drier areas of Chile, they make some concentrated and full-bodies reds such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot. Cooler areas will focus on Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc. Cabernet Sauvignon made in Chile is known to have softer tannins.

A rare grape, that you can’t not talk about when talking about Chilean wines is that of Carmenere. This grape originated from Bordeaux, France, and was nearly completely wiped out during the phylloxera plague of 1857. However, Carmenere was mistakenly planted as Merlot across Chile and was rediscovered in 1994. The varietal suited the conditions in Chile more so than those in France and Chile now has the world’s largest plantings of the grape at 8,800 hectares.

The natural borders of Chile have protected its vines from ever being contaminated by phylloxera louse. This means that Chilean vines don’t need to be grafted onto resistant roots like those in Europe.