5 Chilean Wines You Need to Know and Try

Aristos is a boutique project created by Chilean winemaker Francois Massoc, Chilean terroir expert Pedro Parra and French wine royalty Louis-Michel Liger-Belair from Burgundy of Vosne-Romanée fame, aiming to offer Chile’s top expression of Cabernet Sauvignon and of Chardonnay.

Baronesa d’A Chardonnay 2018 is a deep, complex white made in Burgundian style. Sourced from a single vineyard just 12km away from coast, the wine was fermented and aged in French oak barrels for 24 months, resulting in a richly flavoured wine.

Baettig is founded by Francisco Baettig, the winemaker of Seña and Viñedo Chadwick, and his cousin in Malleco to craft world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Francisco was named ‘Winemaker of the Year’ in Tim Atkin’s 2018 Chile Report.

Today, they’ve planted 15 hectares of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Traiguén, the southern-most appellation in Chile. They practice dry-farming, with soft extraction and judicious use of oak. With minimal intervention, they aspire to make handcrafted fine, pure wines with the maximum expression of place.

This Cabernet is their latest new product sourced from Maule Valley, don’t miss it if you’re a fan of Chilean Cabernet!

Established in 2001, Garage Wine Co. is a project of three partners to create spaces for the voices of small winegrowers in Chile. It is composed of a series of small-lot wines from individual parcels, many of them are preciously planted with dry-farmed old vines grown on pre-phylloxera rootstock. The aim is to connect the traditions of the local farmers with the world with modern winemaking expertise.

Phoenix falls into Garage Wine Co. ‘Single Ferment Series‘, made in elongated single fermentation with grapes from different locations. It is pale yellow in color, with nose that offer herbs and a hint of cherry, In the mouth, it’s fatty with good volume and malic tension, all given pleasant lift by freshness. Ready to drink young!

Alcohuaz crafts medium-bodied wines at Elqui with the granite soils, high altitude and sun intensity of the valley.

Pingo Pingo is the first harvest of the Cariñena de Alcohuaz, whose vineyard is planted at an altitude of 2,188 meters, and is probably the highest Cariñena in the world. The wine is 100% destemmed and was kept for three years in a concrete egg and later for another 4 years in the bottle. Its radical acidity has managed to balance itself during this time, becoming one of the main characteristics of this Pingo Pingo. There are notes of granite dust, stones and graphite. Its structure is vertical and a good evolution can be seen. Only 2,000 bottles are made every year.

Viña Koyle is the tradition that runs through six generations of Undurraga family, whose winery was founded in 1885 with grape varieties imported from France and Germany. Being the first Chilean winery to export wine to the United States in history, they are the pioneer of the industry to adopt biodynamic agriculture in the late 2000s, creating wines that express the origin most faithfully, with the healthiest grapes from the estate vineyards.

AUMA is the flagship wine of the estate, mainly blended with Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon from selected plots on the terraces of their higher-altitude vineyards on the basalt hill. This wine was aged for 24 months in barriques and aged for another 9 months in concrete egg for integration and tannin polymerization prior to bottling, with only 4310 bottles produced each vintage. Definitely a Chilean icon you can’t miss!