Chilean wine: an expert guide and the best bottles to buy

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A guide to Chilean wine

Chile is the world’s fifth-largest wine producer, making more wine than Australia, South Africa and its neighbour Argentina, so it’s no surprise it’s the source of so many bottles found on the shelves of our supermarkets and corner shops.

Although Chile has been growing vines since the 16th century, when they were brought by the Spanish conquistadors, wine took off big time here in the 19th century. The dry climate and high altitudes saved it from the ravages of phylloxera, the deadly insect that destroyed nearly all the vines in Europe then, so there was an influx of growers and winemakers, mainly from France, who brought their grapes and know-how with them. This is why most grapes grown here are familiar French varieties. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc are the most common; Chile’s signature red grape, carménère, originally from Bordeaux, is now virtually extinct in France.

It is a skinny strip of a country, clinging to the eastern coast of South America and stretching for more than 4,000km, from the arid Atacama Desert in the north to the sub-zero wilds of Patagonia in the south, hemmed in by the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean. These diverse terroirs are reflected in the wines; those from the cool, coastal regions, and the high Andes, tend to have more freshness and acidity than the plush, very ripe styles found in the warmer inland valleys.

While Chile’s modern wine industry is best known either for making wines which hit a sweet spot when delivering what so many budget drinkers want, or expensive, brutish reds heavy on the oak, extraction, additives and alcohol, there is a welcome move towards treating the grapes more gently, and an increasing number of innovative producers experimenting with different grapes and production methods to make modern wines with distinctive personalities. Cin cin, Chile!

Best Chilean wine to buy

Luis Felipe Edwards Macerao Naranjo

Available from Waitrose Cellar (£8.99)

Founded in 1976, Luis Felipe Edwards is now Chile’s largest 100% family-owned producer, responsible for millions of bottles of dependable, easy-drinking, value wine produced under many labels. This shows their more experimental side – an orange wine made from 60-year-old moscatel grapes fermented on their skins with wild yeasts then bottled unfiltered. A really approachable orange wine; aromatic with seductive hints of apricot, rose petals and ginger, and brilliant value too.

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Errazuriz Wild Ferment Chardonnay 2022

Available from Majestic (£13.99/£11.99 mix-six)

Errazuriz, another huge producer, has been going for 150 years and makes well-priced wines found in all major retailers. This is a step up from their basic ranges: grapes cooled by ocean breezes are wild-fermented and given a little gentle oak treatment in French barrels. Silky and rich with peachy fruit and a little spice, but beautifully refreshing with a crisp, saline finish.

Viña Echeverría, ‘No es Pituko’ Carignan 2023

Available from Noble Green Wines (£15.50)

From a family winery now run by four siblings, ‘No es pituko’ means ‘It ain’t fancy’ and is the label of their range of groovy natural wines. The French grape carignan is rare to find in Chile but here is used with great aplomb – bright and cheery with bags of late-summer fruits, some mountain herbs and a bit of an earthy grunt. A wine with attitude.