Wines of Chile embarks on project to ressurect old Cabernet Sauvignon vines

The new Wines of Chile President Aurelio Montes has bemoaned the fact that the country’s most widely planted grape, Cabernet Sauvignon is considered by some as “old fashioned” despite the fact it’s the one that “actually pays the bills”.  

Cabernet Sauvignon accounts for nearly a third – 30% - of the grapes produced in Chile, with over 41,000 hectares dedicated to the grape, four times more than Carmenere (10,249ha), Merlot (11,702ha)and Pais (10,056ha). Sauvignon Blanc is the second most widely planted grape in Chile, accounting for 11% of total production, with 15,161ha.  

However, despite its dominance in the Chilean wine world, Chilean Cabernet is failing to make waves, claims Montes. I"t’s a shame that the wine writers go straight to the ‘new’ ancestral varieties and forget what is already here,” he told Drinks Business.  “Wines that include Cabernet represent around 50% of all Chilean wine exports, but people consider it to be old fashioned. If you look at the figures, the amount of wine made from the ancestral varieties that gets exported around the world is less than 1%. The main bulk of the wine we sell is made from the major international varieties – that’s the core business.”  

Wines of Chile has embarked upon a project with two universities in Santiago to ressurect some of the old Cabernet varietals, many of which have fallen out of production because they are riddled with disease.

“We’re trying to clean them and recover the plants that were brought over in 1860,” said Montes who added that the project would take between two and five years to realize. “It’s about bringing back the history of the New World. If the quality is there, there will definintely be demand for these vines based on the fact that we’ve recovered something that had pretty much disappeared.”