06/02/08 Chile Part 1

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. Inspired by questions regarding wines from South America, today we will begin a two part series about the wines of Chile. Chile is a country with a long history of grape growing and winemaking. The wine industry in Chile began when Spanish Conquistadors brought the vine and winemaking from Europe. Near the end of the nineteenth century, while most of the winemaking world was suffering from phylloxera, Chile was able to make good deeply colored wines. But nearly 100 years later many of the same families own the same vineyards and very few changes had been made to the production technology. However, during the past twenty years many prestigious winemaking groups from around the world have set up business in Chile. Among them such French notorieties such as The Rothschild's of Chateau Lafite, the winemaker from Chateau Margaux and Miguel Torres of Spain. Although the general population of Chile is not much interested in wine the economic impact that this export is has is encouraged progressive changes in the technology of winemaking. The old evergreen beech vats have been replaced by small oak barrels and drip irrigation is replacing the flooding of a vineyard for watering. Persuading grape farmers to embrace new forms of production and lower yields in the vineyards has been a bit difficult. But trellising and smaller yields have brought much higher quality grapes, resulting in some truly good wines. Join us tomorrow as we continue our discussion of the wines of Chile and thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.