©2007, The Birmingham Post
The increasing popularity of South American wine is undeniable. No doubt about it, they provide consistent pleasurable drinking and brilliant value at affordable prices.
The recent past has witnessed a rapid growth of the Chilean economy, with the effect that their currency has hardened against the dollar. The knock-on effect is that profits are expected to decline by as much as one-third.
In response, "Wines of Chile" have been urging their producers to move upmarket and seek growth in the £6 - £10 price-bracket. Currently, the average UK spend level for a bottle of Chilean is a miserly £3.83.
The corollary is that quality must improve. Of fundamental importance is a shift to premium vineyard sites, away from the flat flood-irrigated, fertile valley floors, into cooler locations with impoverished soils, and employing drip irrigation to reduce excessive yields.
Proximity to the Andes or the Pacific has an enormous influence, and various vine-growing regions are beginning to develop a distinct identity. Significant progress has been made in matching soil and climate to the appropriate grape variety.
With these advances, there has been greater diversity in the varieties available. Originally, just concentrating on the "big four" (Cabernet Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc), Carmenere has been rediscovered and repackaged as Chile's flagship varietal. More recently, Syrah has emerged and there is an increased focus on Pinot Noir.
At £3.64, the average spend level on a bottle of Argentinian wine is even lower. Yet improving quality and currency weakness have allowed exports to grow faster than any other wine-producing country over the last three years.
Argentina can boast an amazing array of varietals, but unarguably, its signature grape is Malbec. Originating from south-west France, where it has a fearsome reputation for harsh tannins, the grape has flourished under the hot Argentine sun.
Icon wines are at the extreme level of this drive towards quality. On the one hand, these are seen as the new standard-bearers, highly desirable for their quality and scarcity but, on the other, often criticised for their outrageous prices.
The proponents argue that these serve to provide a presence at the very highest echelons, enabling Chile or Argentina to compare themselves to the best of Bordeaux or California. The counter-argument is that these wines have little or no track-record. More often than not, they're made using relatively young vines and have a questionable ability to age. South America should learn to walk before it can run.
While both countries effortlessly produce ripe fruit, the winemaking appears to be formulaic, as if made by numbers. At the base level, many wines show unacceptable levels of residual sugar, but moving to the mid-price bracket, too often demonstrate heavy-handed use of oak and over-extraction. A more worrying trend is the increasingly high level of alcohol, where the average is now between 14 and 15 degrees .
A recent tasting of South American reds not only confirmed the faults, but demonstrated a set of one-glass, over-the-top, one-dimensional wines. In comparison to an Aston Martin, a car of classic design and engineering, these were stretch-limos, just vulgar and bling.
Nevertheless, there still are a few worth trying ….
Acknowledgements to the "Wines of Chile" by Peter Richards (£25 Mitchell Beazley).