The first vines planted in Chile were brought in the mid-1550s by Spanish missionaries who wanted table and sacramental wines. Less than 200 years later, with the importation of cuttings of the great Bordeaux varieties, Chileans discovered they were able to produce "serious" wines, and the modern era of winemaking began. In the early 19th century, a national nursery was established, some of its first specimens being healthy French vinifera vines, which geographic isolation shielded from phylloxera (the   More

The first vines planted in Chile were brought in the mid-1550s by Spanish missionaries who wanted table and sacramental wines. Less than 200 years later, with the importation of cuttings of the great Bordeaux varieties, Chileans discovered they were able to produce "serious" wines, and the modern era of winemaking began. In the early 19th century, a national nursery was established, some of its first specimens being healthy French vinifera vines, which geographic isolation shielded from phylloxera (the infamous root louse) and other European ailments. In the second half of the 19th century, while their vineyards of origin were being devastated, Chile's vines remained untouched by phylloxera and downy mildew--a situation which continues to the present.

With President Salvador Allende's death in 1973, political power passed to the repressive military government of Augusto Pinochet. The ensuing 17 years brought civil war and social instability, further weakening wine production. When democracy and stability were restored in the 1980s, however, large international producers were eager to invest in Chile's great agricultural potential. Results were startling: Chile became known almost overnight as the value wine capital of the world.

The modern Chilean wine industry has invested heavily in high quality red varieties for export, currently producing mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and the French Carmenère, the latter having become something of a flagship. Although Chilean wines are thought of almost exclusively as "good value," there is a handful of high-end wines now produced as well.   Less