Chilean appellation review

Chile is looking at renovating its outdated system of wine appelations in order to better reflect the country's increasing regional diversity. The present system, established in 1986, defines Chile's viticultural areas with reference to political boundaries.

The new approach would involve consulting wine producers and would attempt to create a series of DOs based on factors such as predominant grape varieties, soil types and climate. In a country which has such diverse topography and weather systems - ranging from the Andes in the east to Pacific coastal regions in the west, to arid desert in the north, to lush Patagonian vegetation in the south - this undoubtedly makes sense!

Whereas some Old World countries, notably France, have extremely precise delimitations based on centuries of knowledge of local terroir, Chile at present has only the broadest of regional classifications. The 'Central Valley' covers a vast expanse of land and includes regions as varied as maritime Casablanca and sun-baked, high-altitude Aconcagua. The Chilean government is apparently keen for these improvements to be made and is prepared to act quickly to make them law.

All of which is good news for the Chilean wine industry and another step towards becoming a more complex, interesting wine producing nation.

Champagne in trouble?

Champagne exports in October were down by at least 20% in Europe, Japan, the US, Russia and China, according to the Champagne promotional arm, the CIVC. The drop is of course due to the evil credit crunch, but I suspect increased consumer confidence in other sparkling wines is also a factor.

Drinkable Champagnes retail for well into double figures in the UK, whilst a decent Prosecco or Cava costs half as much. As the snobbery surrounding 'imitation' fizz disappears and consumers' wallets encourage them to focus on quality, Champagne will find it no longer has a stranglehold on the sparkling market.

Sparkling wines from Italy, Spain and the New World are getting better and better and can be produced more cheaply. Grapes tend to be machine harvested, the wine does not legally have to spend so long on its lees and secondary fermentation takes place in tanks rather than in the bottle. Champagne, on the other hand, is a premium product and producers should concentrate on quality, which includes selecting only the best grapes from low yielding vines.