WineAlign

John Szabo, MS

All Winners Revealed Below

The seventh Annual Wines of Chile Awards competition wrapped up in Santiago last week. It’s the principal annual tasting to determine the country’s best wines, and I was happy to take part along with a delegation of ten Canadian judges. Among the crew were most of the country’s sharpest and most experienced palates, including WineAlign colleagues David Lawrason and Rod Philips, as well as country-wide representation from the highly-respected likes of Vancouver Sun critic Anthony Gismondi and the Montreal Gazette’s William Zacharkiw. Effectively Canadian impressions were covered from coast to coast.  The Chileans welcomed us warmly, and the hospitality was world class. Three days and 460-odd wines later, the medal winning and category champion wines were announced at the annual Gala party, with much of the Chilean wine industry in attendance (and an on-screen appearance from Madonna). There was much rejoicing, celebration and dancing late into the night.

Nothing unusual so far; it’s a set-up that I’ve seen at many international wine competitions around the world. And the Chileans had the courtesy to unfold the Gala events in English, it’s assumed, out of respect for the foreigners – nice touch (imagine having to sit through 3 hours of winner announcements and speeches all in Greek – thank Dionysus for ouzo).

Yet there were a few of aspects about this competition that struck me as more than a little curious. Firstly, I expected to be sharing the panel along with Chile’s top wine experts (and critics from other countries), in a sort of cross-cultural exchange of wine impressions. It would have been highly educational for the Canadian critics to learn the about the Chilean’s impressions of their own wine from their national context, while presumably they would benefit from our extra-territory impressions and the experience that comes with living in the world’s most multicultural country. After all, Canada imports wines from every wine-producing corner of the globe. This educational exchange is the most rewarding side-benefit of attending these competitions; it’s certainly not for the romance of spending three days in a closed room slogging through flight after flight of wines poured from anonymous black plastic-wrapped bottles, with your powers of concentration and tasting discipline pushed to the max.

But as it turned out, the Canadians were the only judges at the competition. Not to be overly dramatic, but if you consider it, that means that the burden of tasting through and finding a country’s best wines was left to a group of foreigners, with less experience by definition than her countrymen. Not a single Chilean opinion on the books. It would be like inviting a group of Chilean critics to judge the Canadian Wine Awards while we sat back and watched and waited expectantly. But on deeper inspection, the cleverness of the approach became apparent. My inference is that the exercise was largely a market intelligence-grab, a way for the Chilean industry to look deep into the preferences of a single country. Canada is one of the main export markets for Chile, and for a good handful of producers both large and small, the most import market, so it makes sense to find out exactly which wines Canadians like in order to better tailor, or target, specific wine styles for our market. As I later learned, the Americans and the British (both important markets for Chile) had been invited before us to go through the same exercise, their national opinions alone used to select the country’s top wines. Pretty smart indeed; that’s the number one rule of both the Art of War and Marketing: know thy enemy (market) and know thyself, and your chances of success are assured. (For the record, we awarded more gold medals than the British, and fewer than the Americans, proving once again that Canada is a country of moderate, non-extremists.) Next year, as I understand it, there will be an international panel assembled (Canadians, Americans, British?) to judge the eighth annual Wines of Chile Awards.

The second curious aspect was that the competition was restricted to wines retailing for less than $30. This effectively eliminated all of the so-called “icon” wines of Chile, the Señas, Almavivas, Casa Reals, Don Melchors et all. Why would this be? Shouldn’t a national competition be open to all wines produced in the country, regardless of price? As it was, the entries were divided into 2 price categories, above and below $15. Couldn’t there have been an over $30 category? Wouldn’t you want to expose your foreign guests, all journalists, to the country’s presumed best wines so that we can sing their praises back home and create a trickle down, halo effect on some of Chile’s less expensive (better value) offerings? Perplexing to say the least. I suppose one can logically assume that these top, expensive wines are selling so well that they have nothing to gain, but rather everything to lose from entering into the competition. Many of the world’s most illustrious wine producers refuse to submit their wines to competitions on similar grounds, but I’ve never heard of them being banned from entering. To be fair, we were given the opportunity to taste many of Chile’s best wines outside of the competition during many of the dazzling dinner events, but it’s certainly not the same as tasting them together in a lineup of blind wines.

Thirdly, considering that Chile has nearly 118,000 hectares of vineyard (that’s a lot, about the same as Bordeaux where 10,000 petit châteaux duke it out for market share), there were only 460 wines put forward in the national competition. Where were the rest? Makes one wonder what sort of pre-selecting went on behind the scenes. I understand that each winery was limited to 6 entries, and that many of the larger brands run into the millions of cases, meaning the total number of brands available on the market is relatively small compared to vineyard area, but the number still seems a little small. Not that we were asking for more. It might not be a bad idea after all to have some pre-screening done to make the final stage of the competition run more smoothly, kind of like World Cup qualifying rounds to eliminate the bottom end. But I wonder how it was done. Was it left entirely up to the wineries to screen their own production and submit their best? Or maybe only the wines that they would expect to please the Canadian palate, or those that are already available in Canada and would stand to benefit more from a medal than a wine that is not currently exported to our country? Whatever the case, just a little more clarity on the parameters would place the whole affair on more solid ground.

I certainly don’t intend to diminish the value of the Wines of Chile Awards, merely to put it into context so that the results can be interpreted accurately. The competition logistics were professionally organized, all wines were served in strictly single blind fashion as per international norms (only price category and varietal category were known), and we worked bloody hard to select the wines that we thought were the best in each category. There were naturally some surprises (for both us and the Chileans), but many of the expected producers, recognized in Canada for their fine quality and value, rose to the top. While we can be sure that these are not necessarily the best wines in all of Chile for the reasons stated above, I would be more than happy buy and drink any of the top performers. So here below are the final results by category, with category winners followed by runners-up. Below that is the full list of Gold Medal winning wines (52 in total). As an added bonus, many of these wines are available in Canada:

Sauvignon Blanc

1. Bravado Wines Marina García Schwaderer 2009
2. MontGras Amaral 2009
3. Leyda Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2009 (2006)

Chardonnay

1. Cono Sur 20 Barrels Limited Edition Chardonnay 2008 (2007)
2. Maycas del Limarí Quebrada Seca Chardonnay 2007
3. Gracia Chardonnay Ilusion Reserva lo Mejor 2007

Other White

1. Cono Sur Vision Viognier 2009 (2008)
2. Agustinos Reserva Privada Pinot Gris 2008

White Blend

1. Estampa Reserve Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay/Viognier  2009
2. El Aromo Winemaker Selection Viognier Chardonnay 2009

Pinot Noir

1. Cono Sur 20 Barrels Limited Edition Pinot Noir 2008 (2007)
2. Viña Mar de Casablanca Reserva Especial Pinot Noir 2008

Merlot

1. Ventisquero Grey Merlot 2007
2. Arboleda Merlot 2007
3. Loma Larga Vineyard Merlot 2008

Carmenere

1. Casa Rivas Gran Reserva Carmenere 2007
2. Caliterra Tributo Carmenere 2008
3. Errazuriz Carmenere Vineyard 2007

Syrah

1. San Pedro 1865 Single Vineyard Syrah Cachapoal 2007
2. Mayu Syrah Reserva Limarí Valley 2007
3. San Pedro Castillo de Molina Shiraz 2008 Maule Valley

Cabernet Sauvignon

1. Echeverría Founders Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
2. Vistamar Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
3. Viña Canepa Finisimo Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

Other Red

1. Odfjell Vineyards Orzada Carignan 2006
2. Via Wines Oveja Negra Single Vineyard Carignan 2008
3. Santa Helena Vernus Malbec 2008

Red Blend

1. O. Fournier Centauri Blend 2008
2. Falernia Carmenere/Syrah Reserva 2008
3. Ventisquero Vertice Carmenere-Syrah 2006

Best Value White

1. Viña Bravado Marina García Schwaderer 2009
2. Palo Alto Sauvignon Blanc 2009
3. Cono Sur Vision Viognier 2009 (2008)

Best Value Red

1. Via Wines Oveja Negra Reserva Cabernet Franc Carmenere 2008
2. Falernia Carmenere-Syrah Reserva 2008
3. Loma Larga Vineyard Merlot 2008

Best in Show

1. San Pedro 1865 Single Vineyard Syrah Cachapoal 2007
2. Cono Sur 20 Barrels Limited Edition Pinor Noir 2008 (2007)
3. Viña Bravado Marina García Schwaderer 2009

Gold Medal Winnning Wines (in alphabetical order)

2007 1865 Single Vineyard Syrah Cachapoal

2008 Agustinos Reserva Privada, Pinot Gris Bío Bío

2009 Agustinos Reserva Privada, Sauvignon Blanc Bío Bío

2009 Amaral Leyda

2007 Arboleda Merlot Aconcagua

2009 Aromo Winemaker Selection Viognier Chardonnay Maule

2008 Caliterra Tributo Carmenere Colchagua

2007 Canepa Finisimo Cabernet Sauvignon Colchagua

2005 Carmen Reserva Petit Syrah Maipo

2008 Carmenere Gran Reserva/Family Selection Colchagua

2007 Casa Rivas Gran Reserva Carmenere Maipo

2008 Castillo de Molina Shiraz 2008 Maule Valley Maule

2008 Centauri Blend Maule

2008 Chardonnay Ilusion Reserva lo Mejor Gracia Bío Bío

2008 Chardonnay Select Reserva Porta Bío Bío

2008 Cono Sur 20 Barrels Limited Edition Chardonnay Casablanca (2007)

2008 Cono Sur 20 Barrels Limited Edition Pinor Noir Casablanca (2007)

2009 Cono Sur Vision Viognier Colchagua (2008)

2007 Cuvée Alexandre Merlot Casablanca

2008 De Martino Legado Chardonnay Reserve Limarí

2005 Echeverría Founders Selection Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo

2007 Errazuriz Carmenere Vineyard Aconcagua

2007 Estampa Reserve Carmenere/Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc Colchagua

2009 Estampa Reserve Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay/Viognier Casablanca

2008 Falernia Carmenere Syrah Reserva Elqui

2008 Falernia Syrah Reserva Elqui

2007 Grey Merlot Colchagua

2007 Grey Syrah Colchagua

2007 Hacedor de Mundos Cabernet Franc Maule

2009 Leyda Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc Leyda (2006)

2007 Liguai Maipo

2008 Loma Larga Merlot Casablanca

2008 Malbec Gran Reserva/Family Selection Colchagua

2009 Marina García Schwaderer Casablanca

2007 Matetic Corralillo Syrah San Antonio

2007 Maycas del Limarí Quebrada Seca Chardonnay Limarí

2007 Mayu Syrah Reserva Elqui

2008 Misiones de Rengo Cuvée Carmenere Rapel

2007 Montes Alpha Carmenere Colchagua

2006 Odfjell Orzada Carignan Maule

2008 Oveja Negra Reserva Cabernet Franc Carmenere Maule

2008 Oveja Negra Single Vineyard Carignan Maule

2009 Palo Alto Sauvignon Blanc Maule

2008 Porta Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon Aconcagua

2008 Quintay Q Chardonnay Casablanca

2007 Reserva Especial Maycas del Limarí Syrah Limarí

2007 Reserva Privada Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon Syrah Maipo

2008 Santa Helena Vernus Malbec Colchagua

2008 T.H. Syrah Limarí

2006 Vertice Carmenere – Syrah Colchagua

2008 Viña Mar Reserva Especial Pinot Noir Casablanca

2006 Vistamar Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo