Chile is a very long country, 4000 km from north to south. It is also narrow and borders the cold Pacific Ocean to the west and the Andes Mountain range to the east. All this gives it a variety of climatic conditions.
On our wine tour to Chile in January, we thought about this in particular when we drank two very special wines, one from the north and one from the south. The distance between them are 1400 kilometres (like from Seattle from to the Mexican border or New York to Miami).
The northern wine was a delicious Pedro Jiménez from Viña Choapa, Cordilleramar, with a fresh, juicy and long mouthfeel. The wine comes from the narrowest part of Chile, Valle de Choapa, about 400 kilometres north of Santiago. Until recently, the grapes here were used to produce pisco, a brandy (which is often drunk as a pisco sour). But this has changed and enthusiastic winemakers are now using the same grapes to make characterful wines.
The grapes are so-called criolla grapes, descendants of the grapes that the Spanish brought here when they conquered Chile and Argentina in the 16th century, such as país, pedro jiménez and muscat d’alexandrie.
The second wine was Fénix by Czischke 2022, a fresh and tight chardonnay from Valle de Osorno. Now we are in Chilean Patagonia. It is cool and rainy and a big contrast to the growing conditions in Valle Central, where most Chilean wines come from. Down here in the very south of Chile, a stone’s throw from the icebergs, there are a handful of adventurous producers and around 30 hectares of vineyards.
Two wines that gave us a fascinating perspective on wine production in Chile.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Chile and Argentina with BKWine.
See: See pictures and videos from Chile and Argentina in the latest wine tour’s Facebook group.
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We had the Viña Choapa Cordilleramar at a very small and very nice restaurant in Viña del Mar (neighbouring Valparaíso) called Don Emelio, and the Fénix by Czischke at a Peruvian restaurant called Casita de Barreales with a lovely view over the vineyards in the restaurant area called Boulevard de la Viña in Santa Cruz in Colchagua, Chile.
Both times we started dinner with a pisco sour. That is compulsory!
