Chile

The long and skinny country, isolated from pests and refreshed by the Pacific’s Humboldt currant, has a lengthy history with vines. Early Spanish missionaries and colonists brought wine grapes to the coastal country in the 16th century, and in the 19th century, the allure of Trans-Atlantic travel brought adventurous French (and noble Bordeaux varieties) to Chile as well. The phylloxera louse that was devastating Europe at that time couldn’t penetrate Chile, what with the world’s driest desert, the Atacama, at the north; the mighty Andes mountains at the east; snow plains of Chilean Patagonia to the south; and the cooling Pacific to the west. Therefore, most of the vines today remain engrafted, natural and self-rooted. Modern Chilean winemaking dates back all of 40 years – a drop in the spittoon of most major wine regions. Those three decades, like all of time in the modern era, has seen tremendous change. Much modernization and technological advancements in the 1990s brought precise, big wines, and external influence and affluence brought money to create powerful big brands. However, Chile’s ancient vines are being restored and renovated by a passionate younger generation, making lighter, purer, terroir-driven wines.