Chile is ideally placed to benefit from global demand for lighter, fresher wines, says Cono Sur’s Adolfo Hurtado

By Richard Siddle

The Chilean wine industry is particularly well placed to benefit from the global wine consumer’s increasing interest and demand for fresh, lighter, more aromatic wine styles rather than the big, jammy, fruity, high alcohol wines from the past.  

That’s the view of Adolfo Hurtado, chief winemaker with leading Chilean wine brand, Cono Sur, part of the Concha y Toro wine business.  

The fact that virtually all its vineyards sit within either a few miles or an hour’s drive from the Pacific coast, with more vine plantings in the south of the country, means its wines naturally have good balance, acidity and freshness. Particularly its whites, said Hurtado.  

It potentially means that Chile’s best years are ahead of it as its white wines become as important and as well known as its red styles that have enjoyed great popularity across all the main wine consumer markets.  

“Across the New World, Chile offers so much diversity. We have so many different terroirs, soils and sun exposure in our vineyards, from the north to the south of the country. We are probably closer to New Zealand and the wines it is making than say Australia or California,” he explained.  

“The biggest trend I have seen in the last 20 years has been the movement from big, bold, high alcohol wines to these much fresher styles of wine. That is what people are demanding now,” he added.  Which is why Chile is so well positioned to take advantage of the demand for lighter wine styles. “Of Chile’s top 10 grape varieties, eight are best grown in cool climate areas we have in Chile,” said Hurtado.  

Hurtado told VINEX this week that Cono Sur itself has built its reputation and name around the world on the back of its red wines, most noticeably Pinot Noir, but believes it can now do the same with its white wines.  

“We have a huge potential to make lovely white wines. So let’s push that potential,” he said.  

He said it was very evident from its own range, where sales of Cono Sur Viognier, have gone up considerably in the last year. Its UK Viognier sales, for example, were up 23% over the last year and it is also very popular in Japan and British Columbia and Vancouver in Canada.  

“People are looking for more elegance, acidity and freshness in their wines.”  

Cono Sur itself places far more emphasis on white wines than its main competitors. For whilst the split for red and white wines for the whole of Chile is between 70% and 30%, for Cono Sur it is more 40% white, 25% Pinot Noir and the rest its red wines.      

Pinot Noir is still key  

But let’s not forget that Pinot Noir has lead the way for Chile, said Hurtado. “We have learnt from Pinot Noir about how to get freshness and elegance in our wines which we have been able to translate to our other red wines like Carmenere,” he said.  

He claims that with a production of some 6.5 million bottles, Cono Sur is now the world’s biggest producer of Pinot Noir. This is up from 5.8 million in 2015. Compared to only 70,000 cases in 2006.  

Cono Sur itself is now sold in driven mainly by its sales in the UK, Japan and Canada. It has been its ability to produce fresher, lighter styles that has helped Cono Sur build up such a strong market in Japan as they work so much better with Japanese cuisine.  

The UK is particularly important for Cono Sur. It is, for example, selling between 80,000 and 90,000 cases a year of Cono Sur Bicycleta range, which is more than what was its total annual volumes 10 years ago.  

It is also where it has already had good success with its lighter, more aromatic wines.  

Chile as a whole is also well placed to push its white wines more as each vintage has given producers and winemakers more knowledge and experience about the best areas of the country to grow which grape varieties. “It is a work in progress, but we know our grapes so much better now. We look to improve every year,” he explained.  

“Chile has such a spread of grape varieties. At Cono Sur we plant 22 varieties,14 of which we grow on a commercial volume basis. But the market is requesting these kind of wines.”    

The 2016 harvest Hurtado looks back at Chile’s 2016 vintage like a game of two halves. The first half being very strong, and great growing conditions for all its white wines and bulk of its Pinot Noir production. But come April 17 and a deluge of rain that brought some 120mm of rain with it the conditions in the vineyards fell away dramatically.  

Meaning its late picking varieties such as Carmenere have struggled in particular. Down some  25% at least. It was a slightly better situation for Cabernet Sauvignon where around two thirds of grapes had been picked before the rain, with only a third badly affected.  

“It was very difficult picking conditions and hard to do a good selection of the grapes,” he said.