Is Chile still hot? A source of good wines at keen prices? It can't be much more than a year or two since Chile began to gain ground, among Irish consumers, with the sort of easy, fruity wines that Australia was finding it increasingly difficult to supply at £5-6. Now the picture is changing again, as Chilean prices creep up - the result of several winters with much less Andes snow than usual to melt and irrigate the vineyards. Yields are down, while world demand goes up. Where does this leave thirsty shoppers, scanning the shelves for the best Chilean buys?
There is some good news - a silver lining in the Santiago clouds. Chile, remember, was often accused of over-irrigation, resulting in wishy-washy, dilute wines. With recent weather putting paid to that, the grapes are smaller, their flavours more concentrated and the end product, thank goodness, better overall - some comfort as we accustom ourselves to paying maybe a pound a bottle more for those wines that are so often the mainstay of midweek and party and any-excuse drinking. But it's not just at the low end of the price scale that improved quality is the watchword. The most switched-on Chilean producers are leaping into the premium end of the market with more complex, interesting (and, yes, more expensive) wines than we've been used to seeing from South America's slender tip.
I've been chewing over this quality business recently, in a look at three wineries - one quite new, one long-established but new to me, and the third familiar but with a new head boy. Let's start there. A few weeks ago, the personable young Californian winemaker Ed Flaherty visited Dublin and Cork to bring news of the latest developments at Errazuriz - the well-known company he joined just over a year ago, after four years at Cono Sur.
"The most important thing is that we're putting much more emphasis on our premium wines - our reservas and Don Maximiano, our top red," says the tall, tousleheaded Flaherty, whose mixed San Francisco-Irish and Cuban blood (accounting, he says, for his lively temperament) seems as exotic as any of the grape blends he may be conjuring up in the winery. Interestingly, he highlights Syrah as the most exciting new trend, along with Pinot Noir - both of them, alas, in quantities too limited for there to be much hope of our sampling them here in anything remotely resembling the near future.
Also sadly beyond our reach is his top-of-the-range "Wild Ferment" Chardonnay, using only the yeast naturally present on the grape skins - another key trend in quality wine-making. In the meantime, the main strengths of Errazuriz, he feels, lie in Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and the Reserve Chardonnay. I'd agree. But Chile, he stresses, has become a wine country on the move - a new development in itself. "The whole culture is changing so fast you wouldn't believe it. Nobody has time for manana any more."
Another recent visitor was Sergio Traverso, whose wines have just arrived in Ireland. You may search the reference books in vain for any mention of the range he is producing in Chile's Rapel Valley under his own name, for the whole enterprise is just a few years old. You only have to taste the wines, however, to realise this is a quality-driven operation. And like most genuinely talented, creative people, he presents the fruits of his efforts in a low-key way - saying very little, letting the wine speak.
Where did all his quiet competence come from? California again, in a sense - for although Sergio Traverso was born into a family with a wine and spirits business near Valparaiso, he has worked on the west coast of the US for the past 27 years. The CV, divulged with reluctance, is impressive. The first winemaker at Domaine Chandon, then consultant at Clos du Val, Inglenook, Mondavi, Concannon, Wente . . .
"I'm still winemaker at Murrieta's Well," he says - and immediately a style parallel emerges between those smooth, concentrated Californian wines and his intensely flavoured Sergio Traverso Chileans. "But recently I found I was spending more and more time in Chile. Things have reached an exciting stage there. So I decided, with family agreement of course, that it was time to move back." It was through stocking Murrieta's Well, incidentally, that Sean and Francoise Gilley of Terroirs in Donnybrook came to hear of Sergio Traverso's Chilean wines. All credit to them for leaping upon an allocation for Ireland.
Lastly, a range of wines I'd seen around, and heard positive reports of, but never actually tasted until a few weeks ago. Canepa was founded in 1930 by an Italian immigrant with wine in his blood. Still family-owned, it was one of the first companies to embrace new wine technology in the early 1980s, and has since become a South American giant. What's surprising, for a company producing such vast quantities of wine, is that quality should be so high, and prices (still) relatively low, right across the board.
After a tasting of all 11 wines on the Irish market, from simple varietals up through various reservas to the prestigious Magnificum, my impression is that the Canepa style is more subtle - perhaps, it might even be whispered, more European - than that frequently exhibited by Chilean wines. The exuberant, ripe fruit is there - but so are heaps of other, less obvious flavours. A delicate balancing act is pulled off, it seems to me, not in the 1990 Magnificum tasted, but in the much less expensive, much more exciting Private Reserve Cabernet - see Bottle of the Week.
Also striking is the fact that Canepa is producing tasty wines from grapes not normally associated much with Chile - and in quantities big enough for Ireland to get its share. Look out for a soft, brambly Cabernet-Malbec (which may make you feel you've strayed into Argentina), as well as a creamy oak-aged Semillon and a peppery Zinfandel.
What do these three random samplings suggest? That, like Ed Flaherty's best Chardonnay, the whole Chilean wine industry is in a state of wild ferment, leading to better and better bottles. Let's hope that the low prices which have been a central plank of Chile's appeal don't rise much further - but on the evidence of cranked-up quality so far, it's probably worth paying that pound or two more.
Chileans with class
White
Canepa Sauvignon Blanc 1996 (Superquinn, many SuperValus, Molloys, Roches, Pettitts, Londis, Cooneys Harolds Cross, Jus de Vine and other outlets, £5.49- £5.79). A basic, fresh young Sauvignon (the 1997 vintage arrives any day) - but it tastes more interesting than many at this bargain price. Grassy and zesty at first, rounding out to softer, more tropical fruit flavours - but with a nice, firm finish.
Errazuriz Chardonnay Reserva 1996 (Vintry, Redmonds, Lord Mayors, Bird Flanagan, Galvins Cork and other outlets, £9.99- £10.49). Ed Flaherty's single estate Chardonnay from the cool Casablanca Valley is fermented in French oak barriques. The result is the delicious liquid equivalent of baked apples with shortbread, cinnamon and cream. And the flavour lingers on.
RED
Sergio Traverso Merlot Reserva 1996 (Terroirs, £7.99). Very smooth, very cool, just like its maker - an enticing Merlot with intense, plummy fruit and a long, lush finish.
Canepa Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1994 (Superquinn, many SuperValus, Molloys, Roches Stores, Pettitts and other outlets, usually £7.99). A really classy wine at a very decent price. See Bottle of the Week.
Sergio Traverso Cabernet Sauvignon Gran Reserva 1994 (Terroirs, £10.99). Now we enter treats territory. A wine with the super-concentration that is the Traverso trademark, luscious with the flavours of ripe blackcurrants and plums, mint and spice - but with a nice savoury streak in the middle. Very impressive.
Errazuriz Don Maximiano Special Reserve 1993 (outlets as for Chardonnay above, £14.50- £15). No, the old Don Maximiano we knew and loved hasn't leapt up in price by a fiver. Rather confusingly, Errazuriz has renamed that wine Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva, Don Maximiano Estate, and bestowed the black label and Don Maximiano Special Reserve name (latterly changed to Founder's Reserve - more confusion) on this superior bottling. An alluring, almost delicate Cabernet with lively acidity and layers of flavour - stylish and restrained.