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Chile
Overview
Are
you looking for attractive, fruity wines with bags of fruit, but at budget
prices? Chile could be the place for you. Chile's speciality is inexpensive but
flavour-filled wines from the international varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. These are now rapidly filling up the
supermarket shelves in the wake of the Aussie wines that have recently moved to
a higher price bracket. At the top end, more ambitious Chilean producers have
tried to compete in the fine wine market by making aspiring, high-end wines,
but while these display stunning fruit intensity they seem to lack some of the
complexity of the established old-world classics. The key wine regions include
Maipo, Rapel, Curicó, Maule and trendy cool-climate Casablanca.
Casablanca
Trendy, northerly
Chilean region, making Chile's best white wines and in particular Chardonnay.
Although it would normally be too hot to make good wine at this sort of
latitude, the maritime influence (fogs and breezes) keep things cool enough to
make crisp, boldly flavoured white wines. Frost can be a problem here in
spring.
Curicó
The warm
days and cool nights make Curicó, a region sandwiched between the Rapel
and Maule regions in the central valley of Chile, ideal white wine territory.
The best wines from this region are the crisp, fruit-filled Sauvignons and
Chardonnays.
Maule
Predominantly
white wine region at the southern end of Chile's Central Valley, currently
undergoing a bit of a revival as the traditional Pais vines, which make fairly
crappy wine, are being replaced by international superstars such as Chardonnay
and Sauvignon Blanc.
Rapel
Located just below Maipo in Chile's
Central Valley, Rapel is establishing a reputation of its own for characterful
red wines from grapes such as Merlot, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. |
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