Image problems holding back Chile

Chile remains hampered by its struggle to build a reputation as a producer of top quality wines, according to Pascal Marty, technical director at Cousiño-Macul.

“Chile is known to be cheap and that’s a killer for us because producing high quality wine is an expensive business”, he said, adding: “Today the image of Chile is the main problem we have.”

A consultant for Cousiño-Macul since 2003, Marty already had a good knowledge of the estate when he joined full time in 2007, as well as clear ideas about how to extract the full potential from its vines. “I’d always been interested in the old vines at Macul and wondered why we’d never made great wines from these”, he explained.

It therefore comes as little surprise to learn that Marty’s major legacy to-date at Cousiño-Macul has been the creation of Lota, a Cabernet/Merlot blend produced from 30 hectares of 80-year-old vines. These are derived from pre-phylloxera root stock brought over from Bordeaux by the Cousiño family just before the disease devastated Europe.

While Chilean producers continue to experiment with varieties and vineyard sites in a way that only the New World can, Marty firmly believes there is a clear flagship for his particular corner of the country. “Cabernet Sauvignon is the grape, especially in Maipo Alto where we are located”, he maintained.

While Maipo’s dry climate and poor, rocky soils may be somewhat different to Cabernet’s Bordeaux homeland, Marty is quick to point out key similarities. “It’s wet in Bordeaux, but we irrigate in Chile so it’s not a question of water.” Moreover, he argued, “Where you find the best Cabernet is the Médoc’s very gravelly places where you have good drainage. Cabernet does not really mix with clay.”

As many corners of the New World pursue the regionality communication strategy, Marty is not yet convinced that this is the right path for Chile to raise its profile as a quality wine producer. “At the moment I think it’s too early to be talking about, say, Colchagua, when people don’t even really know where Chile is”, he suggested.

Add to this Marty’s observation that many of the top names, such as Montes and Errazuriz, have wineries in more than one valley, and the argument for promoting Chile’s top wines by producer rather than region becomes still more powerful.

Despite the image problems he finds obstructing the mission to push the top end of Chile’s wine industry into the global limelight, Marty remains attracted by the opportunities for creativity and discovery here that would not be possible in his native France.

“In France if it’s not authorised, it’s forbidden; but in Chile if it’s not actually forbidden then you can do it”, he pointed out, “That makes a huge difference because you can experiment and improve quickly.”

When it comes to quality wines, Marty is able to offer a particularly broad perspective. Although he has now been in Chile for 15 years, his initial introduction to the country came through a spell as a consultant working across several estates belonging Baron Philippe de Rothschild, from Mouton Rothschild to Opus One in California and finally Viña Almaviva in Chile.

 Gabriel Savage, 21.07.2010