Veramonte: Chile needs to stop chasing trends

Chilean wine producers need to “go up to the mountain, hands tied with our commercial directors and have a very serious conversation”, if they are to succeed in raising the premium of Chile’s wine offer, believes Veramonte’s winemaker Rodrigo Soto.

Rodrigo Soto, winemaker at Veramonte

Speaking to the drinks business in Santiago last week, Soto addressed the challenges faced by Chile to shake off its reputation as a reliable, good value producer, and reposition itself as a premium producer.

While Chile is now responsible for several 100-point wines and is capable of producing high quality wines from a range of styles and grapes varieties, thanks to its climactic diversity, Soto believes the tendency for winemakers to chase trends, rather than focus their efforts on developing areas already established more firmly, has hampered its progress.

Veramonte is based in Casablanca, where it produces a range of wines under its Rituals and Veramonte labels, and also in Apalta, where it produces its Neyen range, and its flagship Primus red blend.

“We try to be very appellation centric in where we have our own interests meaning that we are very committed to organic farming techniques and because of that we needed up being very tied to our estates,” said Soto. “We are not a winery that’s searching for buying grapes whatever the appellation or new areas are. We have tried to get better at what we do and where we are rather than expand into new territories, and understanding that a lot of work still needs to be done where we are.”

“That been our philosophy. I’m not saying that other regions aren’t interesting, but developing a region takes time and in my opinion it would be a big distraction for us to focus on other appellations and start doing different things across the country.”

His comments come at a time when Chilean winemakers are working to push the viticultural limits of their country, searching for quality in the far north and far south of the country, and experimenting with traditional grapes varieties, such as Cinsault and Pais, as well as new grape varieties and styles.

Continuing he explained: “I think one of the things that our country lacks is specific-ness and depth and being profound on different aspects of wine. We are focused on filling niches rather than demonstrating high quality where we are located, even if it’s not the most trendy appellation. Trendy is trendy until it is not trendy. I’m not saying that trendy is the wrong way, we are just trying to not be distracted, and that’s very much our personality.”

“We need to go up to the mountain, hands tied with our commercial directors and have a very serious conversation”

Specifically, Soto singled out Chile’s commercial directors for criticism, believing that one of Chile’s biggest challenges is to realign the commercial interests of maintaining a business and satisfying export markets with the passion and direction of its winemakers.

“This whole business model of having the whole range of alternatives for customers, I think it ends up deteriorating your position and brands and it’s something that we are working on to try and position, to have the internal discipline to say no, but that’s very difficult, because you have other characters in our industry, which are the most damaging everywhere, which are the commercial directors.

“They don’t always share the passion of production and it’s understandable but I think we need to level things up. There needs to be a shared passion to build. It needs to be balanced. One cannot dominate the other. It’s one of the biggest challenges of the industry today. It’s very very difficult to keep the ambition that’s carried by the ownership and maintain the execution to reach that same ambition. It’s very complicated. Some wineries are capable of aligning that, and others aren’t. We all complain about our position in the world, and we realise that Chile isn’t hot as a category anymore, and we need to do something about it. We have an incredible country with an incredible geography and tremendous potential. How do we put things together? We need to go up to the mountain, hands tied with our commercial directors and have a very serious conversation.”

Earlier this year, Wines of Chile addressed the issue, announcing that it would no longer be promoting wines sold for less than US$60 FOB a case. It means that at a promotional and events level, wines priced at less than £10 retail (or US$15 and ¥150 in China) will not be presented by its members at any trade show or event worldwide. This, its says, will help to achieve its aim of growing value ahead of volume, by 6 and 3% each year.

While Soto is supportive of this move, it’s not enough in itself, with a stronger focus on appellations required simultaneously in order to raise Chile’s reputation higher. Currently, Chile’s DO system is geographically delimited, and not tied to any specific quality regulations.

“We need to be much more consistent in the things that we are preaching in order to build the image that we are trying to build,” he says. “But if after the conversation we start talking about private labels, it doesn’t make any sense. For me it’s heartbreaking. I have been a very harsh critic, because maybe the financial future of the winery is there, but not the future of Chile.”

Last month Chile gained four new DOs, having modified its rules in order to allows areas not attached to a municipality to become a DO, marking a major step for Chile in recognising specific viticultural terroirs outside of political boundaries.

The three new DOs made under the new precedent include Lo Abarca, in the San Antonio Valley, and Apalta and Los Lingues, which are both in the Colchagua Valley. A fourth area, Licantén, was also made a DO, in line with previous guidelines, as it was already recognised as a district of the Curicó Valley.

While a positive step, Soto believes more needs to be done to fine tune and strengthen Chile’s appellation system, inviting discussion on production regulations and more specific, subdivided DOs within larger established DOs.

“If you want an appellation, a true appellation, it comes with very strict regulation,” says Soto. “Who wants that is debatable. We don’t want to lose flexibility Flexibility has been very good for Chile in many aspects, but it’s also going to be responsible for al of our problems. I have been a big advocate to subdivide Casablanca. But there has been resistance from those who say, but what if I’m in the wrong side? What’s the wrong side? We are just trying to be more specific. You wines will show differently. Someone might expect herbal notes, and other more citrus. We need to be true to our beliefs and our location. That’s the way to communicate those appellations.”