Chile

With a particularly varied climate and topography, this long, narrow South American country on the Pacific Ocean was long associated with reliable, inexpensive wines, but the current generation of winemakers has proved that it can produce more than bargains.

The Spanish may have introduced viticulture, but since the 19th century, France has had the greatest influence on the Chilean wine industry, primarily with Bordeaux varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Carmenère.

However, in Chile’s climate and soils, each has developed a local identity very different from Bordeaux's. In addition to these varieties, the 21st century has also seen the rediscovery of varieties such as País (aka Listán Prieto), Carignan, and Cinsaut, which have contributed to the diversity of Chilean wine today.

Chile has been one of the world’s most energetic wine exporters since the 1990s. In 2021, vineyards covered 210,000 ha/518,921 acres, and total wine production was about 13.4 million hl/354 million gal, nearly 70% of which was destined for export.

  • Viña Vik

    When Norwegian entrepreneurs Alexander and Carrie Vik founded Viña Vik in 2004 they set themselves a deliberately audacious brief: to make one of the great wines of the world, from South America. The search that followed was forensic. A two-year scientific study of South American terroir led them to Millahue — "Place of Gold" in Mapuche — in Chile's Cachapoal Valley, where they acquired 4,300 hectares and planted 327 hectares of vines across twelve distinct valleys, each with its own microclimate, exposure, and cooling balance of Pacific breezes and Andean winds.

    The winery itself, designed by Pritzker-nominated Chilean architect Smiljan Radić, is an exercise in restraint: a sweeping white roof that reads, as a single suspended wing. A water mirror above the barrel room regulates cellar temperature and humidity without recourse to mechanical cooling; a translucent roof allows work by daylight alone.

    The wines are Bordeaux in idiom, unmistakably Chilean in character. The range is led by the flagship red, typically sold via the Place de Bordeaux.

    Chief winemaker Cristián Vallejo, ex-Château Margaux, oversees hand-harvesting and wild-yeast fermentations, with ageing in a mix of new and used French oak, some of it coopered from the estate's own fallen centennial trees.

    *ICON WINERY

    *HIGHLY SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION