The Culture of Wine: Chile

Geographically, Chile is one of the strangest and most unique countries in the world. It’s long and narrow, a song of ice and fire. To the north is sand and desert; to the east are the Andes, reaching 7,000m in elevation; to the west is the Pacific Ocean—the Easter Islands in the heart of the Pacific belong to Chile; and to the south is snow, not that far from Antarctica. It’s less than 200km from the Pacific coast to the Andes, but there’s an extraordinary range of climates.

The capital city of Santiago de Chile is called the fast-food city of the world. There are others that lay the same claim, but there’s a truth to the phrase. Food is sold on the streets or in the windows of bars and restaurants; even in a restaurant, the food comes immediately. The only restaurants that have anything approaching a “slow-food” culture are for tourists in the centre of the city: everywhere else service is immediate.

This “must-do now” attitude was epitomised by a trip to Montsecano, my favourite Chilean winery, in Casablanca. Casablanca is a region only established in the 1980s, in contrast to the Central Valley regions which date back to the mid-1500s. It’s near the Pacific coast, and has a cooler climate; Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Noir all excel. Montsecano is owned by the opinionated but modest Julio Donesco, who photographed Claudia Schiffer in Paris in the 1990s. The Montsecano vineyard is on a steep slope near the ocean, and produces exceptional Pinot Noir. When I visited, there was a local farmer and an estate agent who had started their own winery nearby. They were seeking advice from Julio, but instead they spent the entire time arguing with him. For Julio, farming was long-term, for future generations. For them, farming was about making wine as quickly and cheaply as possible to bring money in straightaway. It’s the latter attitude that has dominated the modern development of Chilean wine, which is why most of the wines on the international market are inexpensive and easy to drink.

Chilean producers have not helped their reputation by the confusion in which grape varieties are planted in the country. Chile has become known for Carménère, which doesn’t produce particularly great wine, but in the 1990s, when Chile emerged internationally, it was marketed as Merlot which producers genuinely believed the wines were made from. There is still ongoing research into which plantings are actually Carménère and what is Merlot. The same issue arose with Sauvignon Blanc, much of which was actually Sauvignonasse (aka Friulano). Not knowing exactly what the wines were made from hasn’t helped showcase Chile’s regionality.

Pinochet’s shadow looms large. In 1973, he led a military coup which, with the help of the United States, overthrew the democratically elected Salvador Allende. Read The Suicide Museum by Ariel Dorfman for a semi-fictional investigation into whether Allende killed himself or was killed—a question still at the centre of Chilean political identity. A recent film, El Condo, imagines Pinochet as a vampire who fled France after the Revolution with the intention of preserving the rule of the elite. In the film, as Pinochet becomes increasingly senile, Margaret Thatcher (literally) flies to the rescue, and turns out to be his mother. In real life, Pinochet’s Chile was seen as the vanguard of neo-liberalism which heavily influenced Thatcher who was a vocal supporter of him. But under Pinochet, who killed thousands of dissidents in the 1970s, Chile was remote and isolated: it was only after the transition to democracy that Chile’s wine became successful internationally.

Chile now is a successful democracy with a thriving wine industry. But most wine is exported: domestic consumption is 13 litres per person a year, half of that of neighbouring Argentina. The fast-food culture isn’t conducive to wine. The success of the wine industry in the last 35 years, though, is an insight into Chilean wine culture: economically vibrant, international, not taking its time, a conflicted history, and individuals not afraid to confront the accepted norm.