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RSSChilean Wine Industry Shaken, not Stirred
While Vancouverites whooped it up on February 27, during the most drunken Olympics in recent history, an epic magnitude earthquake pounded the coast of Chile. At 8 point 8 on the Richter scale, it was 500 times stronger than the Haitian quake and resembled a scene from the movie, 2012. It created tsunamis that washed away swaths of coastal communities and has so far killed over 700 people. How can one think about wine in the face of this tragedy?
Although no comparison to human life, a lot of wine was lost too. According to Wines of Chile, “125 million liters, including bulk, bottled, and aging wine.” Their estimated figure is the equivalent of US$ 250 million, just 12.5% when compared with the 2009 vintage of 1.01 billion liters. A bucket in the lake, really. So, instead of worrying about them, wine industry reps are encouraging donations to the Red Cross and the Levantando Chile Fund.
Wine producing Bio Bio was the epicenter, but Maule, Colchagua and Cachapoal valleys were the worse affected. The biggest losses were at wineries with no power to pump out broken tanks and barrels. With the 2010 harvest ready to pick soon, most wineries are scrambling to get power turned on and get back to business.
Which begs the question: what will the 2010 Chilean vintage taste like? Shaken, addled, or slightly effervescent? Maybe the fruit will have more powerful flavours after having the full weight of the earth affect its development. Or, like a bottle of wine, vines could have gone into shock and aftershocks, and slowed their ripening. Scientists say the caused time to shift so the wines could have a time-tripped effect. Who knows?
The night of the earthquake, after a long day at Canada Hockey Place, I reached into my stash and pulled out a Chilean cab/syrah that I knew nothing about. Botalcura 2006 Delirio Syrah/Malbec is somewhat new, has a fun label and is reasonably priced, so I brought some home. Nothing could have tasted more comforting. It has a generous, pillowy body with sturdy backbone and the smell of a cabin in the woods complete with campfire, like coming home. Drank over the next two days, the mouthfeel softened, the blackberry, cassis and plum continued to integrate, and more pepper and spice emerged.
And each time I sipped it, I thought of the forward thinking Botalcura staff of 2006 and wondered if they'd ever imagined an 8.8 earthquake in their backyard.
So, here’s to Chile. Long may you run!