The Chilean wine industry should not ignite

Emiliana Adobe Reserva Pinot Noir, Bío Bío, Chile 2021, £9.50, Vintage Roots One of the most exciting developments in South American wine in the 21st century has been the discovery of the Chilean winegrowers, or rediscovering, in some cases, wine regions in the south of their country. In the early years of the country's modern wine boom, which closely followed the rise of other non-European wines like Australia and California in the 1980s and 1990s, most of the wine action was took place in the central valley. which extends south of the capital Santiago. Then as now, the Central Valley was home to excellent wines, including the sumptuous Cabernet Sauvignons that were Chile's first truly world-famous fine wines. But the rise of the south (along with new vineyards on the coast and north bordering the Atacama Desert) has greatly expanded Chile's wine palate, with the relative coolness of the Bío Bío Valley becoming one of the best from the continent. places for Pinot Noir, like Emiliana's refreshing, strawberry-scented example.

Longavi Glup País, Itata, Chile 2021, £11.49, All About wine Winegrowers in southern Chile had a nightmarish start to 2021 as wildfires swept through their vineyards in early February, destroying or severely damaging vines and buildings as they began to prepare for harvest of 2023. The fate of the vineyard may seem a minor concern in the face of human losses (24 people died in the fires) and homes, but the trauma of the small producers who constitute the majority of the winegrowers there, whose livelihoods are threatened , should not be underestimated. Among the most affected regions, the Itata Valley, one of the first traditional homes of Chilean wine, has seen a remarkable renaissance in recent years after being somewhat marginalized during the modern boom. It is a renaissance built on the rediscovery, or the redeployment, of very old vines, sometimes more than a hundred years old, whose fruit disappeared in anonymous blends, but which is now used to produce lively and tangy red wines such as that of Longavi. Glup País.

Rogue Vine Grand Itata Tinto, Itata, Chile 2021, £20.50, The Sourcing Table As with other severe forest fires in wine regions such than Australia, California and Greece In this decade, the root cause of the February fires in Chile is unequivocally the climate crisis, with the epidemic in southern Chile ultimately triggered by record temperatures and a mega- drought. So there's a hideous irony that some of the worst-affected growers are using some of the country's most sustainable farming methods, often working chemically and without irrigation. One of those producers is a key player in Itata's revival, Leonardo Erazo, of Los Viñateros Bravos and Rogue Vine. In an article about the fires for wine specialist website jancisrobinson.com by Alistair Cooper, an English wine master and long-time specialist in the Itata region, Erazo said he had lost up to 90 % of this year's production, and that he expected only around 50% of his precious stock of old vines to survive - with many of them having been reduced to nothing more than a pile of ashes . So now seems the time to support Erazo and his colleagues by purchasing a bottle of his beautifully supple and evocative red.

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