Viñedos Familia Chadwick marks 20 years since The Berlin Tasting

Viñedos Familia Chadwick hosted a celebration in Santiago on Thursday (7 November) to honour the “remarkable transformation” of Chile’s international reputation as a winemaking country since The Berlin Tasting in 2004.

The Santiago event is the final celebration of 14 worldwide events as part of a global world tour which launched in Berlin in February. Six cities in Asia were included in the global tour to commemorate the anniversary of this historic milestone for Chilean wines.

Held in Berlin in 2004, the original Berlin Tasting was initiated by Eduardo Chadwick, owner of Viñedos Familia Chadwick, who invited the late Steven Spurrier to organise a blind tasting to place super-premium icon reds from Chile against some of the world’s finest Bordeaux and Super Tuscan wines of the millennium vintages, mirroring Spurrier’s ‘Judgment of Paris’ in 1976.

Three Chilean wines made it into the top five out of 16 wines tasted by a panel of 36 top European wine professionals. The landmark tasting marked out Chile as a producer of world-class wines and saw the commencement of a series of Berlin Tastings in major capitals around the world, with the events showing consistently successful results for fine Chilean wines, which ranked top three in 90% of the tastings.

“The major point is that Chilean wines were not viewed as great potential wines before. After the Berlin Tasting, they were,” remarked Spurrier at the time.

The 20th anniversary celebration in Santiago in November, held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, featured wines spanning five decades, presented through a masterclass led by Eduardo Chadwick, master sommelier Héctor Vergara, Ana María Barahona, editorial director, La CAV and Patricio Tapia, wine critic, Descorchados.

“Since the Berlin Tasting in 2004, the international reputation of Chilean wines has undergone a remarkable transformation,” Magui Chadwick, executive marketing director at Viñedos Familia Chadwick, told db. “The tasting’s unexpected results placed Chile firmly on the global fine wine map, proving that its wines could compete alongside established names from more traditional wine regions.

“Chilean wines are now recognised not just for their quality but also for their consistency, terroir, diversity and ageing potential. Leading critics and wine publications frequently rank Chilean wines among the best in the world. In short, the Berlin Tasting served as a catalyst, and today, Chilean wines are celebrated globally—not as outsiders but as established, highly respected players in the fine wine market.”

The masterclass featured Viñedo Chadwick 2000, the wine that ranked first place at The Berlin Tasting 20 years ago; Chile’s first international joint venture Seña, as well as Errázuriz’s flagship wine Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve and KAI, made from Chile’s signature Carmenere grape. The masterclass line-up also featured Viñedo Chadwick 2021, a vintage with multiple 100-point ratings.

Eduardo Chadwick, the fourth generation to lead Viñedos Familia Chadwick, said: “The Berlin Tasting showcased the excellence of Viñedos Familia Chadwick’s wines, the great potential of Chilean wines, and continues to raise recognition of Chile’s position as a benchmark fine wine region in our world today.”

The masterclass was followed by a closing wine dinner for the global tour held at the Viñedo Chadwick estate.

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