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ShareI distinctly remember my first trip to Chile, it was inspiring, memorable and stunning. I bought an apt T-shirt that said 'Chile: The furthest that you can go'. Which was true for us because any further and I would have been heading back homewards. To even think of coming this far was exhilarating, to experience it was awesome!
Chile had a lot to offer and I was apprehensive that it would be a while before I got back to this side of the world. My apprehensions were justified. So recently, it was quite a treat when people from about a dozen wineries made a trip to our side of the world and presented their wines.
I was there from morning till evening, trying to walk them through the labyrinthine market for wines that is India. Visitors fail to understand how a country so large with a population so dense and urban manages to drink so little. Don't they have something to be happy or sad about... don't they have women in this part of the world?
Moving on, while most foreign visitors try and come to terms with our dietary and cultural differences, our duty and tax structures deal them a crushing blow. It is just not easy selling wine in a country that is actually 30 small countries clubbed into one.
So, in my effort to promote the wines of Chile, here are my vital five points.
Chilean wine is among the best value-for-money propositions in the world. What they can make available at under US $5 is virtually unmatchable from most parts of the Old World.
Great weather ensures that no vintage is sun-starved. Ideal growing conditions make for good crop that can be made into rich wines with good maturation and fruity characters. Oak ageing in Chile is primarily French which makes the wines less New World in appearance. That means the wines can be more subtle than in-your-face wines from other New World players at this price.
Original Vines: Since Phylloxera (that bug which destroyed almost all the vineyards of Europe in the mid-19th century) never made it this far, the vine stocks in Chile are as original as the ones Noah probably planted and got drunk on. Although it is not scientifically established that original rootstocks could contribute qualitatively, it does add a certain romance to the whole affair.
Carmenere: This forgotten French grape was lost to most of the world post-Phylloxera till it was found mixed up in Chilean vineyards with Merlot plantations. Now, identified and separated, it is used to make some elegant and rich reds with notes of mint and spice and some leathery-peppery notes as well.
Pablo Neruda, a wine lover and a poet should be an inspiration. Works like Ode to Wine had the effect of verbose intoxication that can only be achieved by imbibing quality stuff. If I could write two lines like him, I would rest a content man.
The ambassadors of this lovely South American Republic to India are not just warm and friendly, they are true savants and very wine-friendly. And they sure know how to throw an elegant yet groovy wine bash, with fine Chilean wines with gourmet food.
So let us fill our glasses with some Chilean charm and thank this country from the other edge of the world for all that it has sent our way.
The writer is a sommelier.
