In the remote Valleys of SouthAmerica, a revolution is underway.
Below the Andes mountain range a new generation of winemakers
are redefining an industry.
They're challenging the dominance of the established old world producers,
competing for the palates of wine lovers around the world.
New investments in technology are allowing them to explore the potential
of cooler microclimates.
Vineyard sites are emerging high in the hills and in cool valleys close to the sea.
These are wines of finesse and elegance
grown in the region known as the 'Winemaker's Paradise'
Chile
Chile is one of the fastest wine growing regions of the world.
The country is a mosaic of flavors and styles, as varied as the geography
the climate and the people themselves.
This country is much like an island, cut off from the rest of the world
and dependent on trade for survival.
Shipping ports are the link to markets across the globe.
From here, Chile shares its bounty with the world.
You don't see a great number of tourists from North America here,
I think it's one reason why this country remains such a mystery to Canadians.
Its isolation from the world has kept much of its rich culture hidden from view.
Santiago, the sprawling capital city is home to many of Chile's 16 million inhabitants.
Today the country is a stable democracy with a strong economy
and one of the most educated societies in South America.
This is Santiago's Central Market area,
where you'll find an abundance of fresh produce on display.
High quality fruit is grown here because the climate provides ideal growing conditions.
Chile is known as the 'winemaker's paradise', one of the best places to grow
grapes in the world.
The French saw its potential more than a hundred years ago
and helped cultivate Chile's vineyards with the classic Bordeaux varieties.
Riding along the vineyard trails, you get a real sense of the land
and its incredible potential.
These isolated vineyards have been protected for centuries by mountain and desert.
Chile is home to some of the oldest grapevines in the world.
This is spectacular! That's the only way to describe this
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
Hernan Grah made wine in Ontario for 20 years,
but returned because he recognized the potential in Chile's vineyards.
"The weather and the conditions to grow grapes here are so good that
you almost can guarantee
anybody around the world, that we're going to obtain the best wine year after year,
And the consistency that you be hard pressed to find any anywhere in the world.
So trust the Chilean wine because it's always going to be high quality".
The sunny climate here is ideal for quality fruit production
and is moderated by air flowing down, from the Andes and in, from the cool Pacific Ocean.
This air flow creates temperature variations that can range from 30 degrees Celsius during the day
down to 10 degrees at night.
This slows the ripening process allowing the grapes to develop complexities
through improved acid balance, tannins and flavor compounds.
"Breeze from the ocean, that cool down the temperature during the day and night
and this big difference of temperature, allows us to ripe the fruit very long.
From flower to the picking, we can ripe the tannins,
which is very important to achieve a good wine"
"In the past 20 years ago... We always have a really good weather vintages
and the variation in between one year and the other one is not really high.
We're talking a really small variation and that's helped us to really have consistent vintages".
"We have ideal conditions, from sanitary conditions, having no pests, no diseases, no rainfall,
which is the main risk that you have when you're approaching
harvest time. So it really makes it an ideal Valley and I think that's the quality of our wines".
This region provides growers with one more distinct advantage,
organic production.
Due to its isolation and dry climate, Chile is free from many of the pests, fungus and diseases
that afflict other growing regions of the world.
They don't rely heavily on pesticides or herbicides to produce healthy fruit.
Beyond the vineyards, the landscape of the country is incredibly diverse.
It stretches almost 4 300 kilometers along the Pacific Coast
through varied and magnificent landscapes.
The arid Atacama Desert is in the North,
with the capital Santiago in the center of the country
and the glaciers and fjords of Patagonia to the South.
On average, Chile is less than 200 kilometers wide.
The Maipo Valley, close to Santiago, was traditionally the home of wine production here
but in recent years vineyards have spread to marginal areas,
developing new regions.
"10, 15 years, we have been looking for different areas, not the traditional ones,
to find special terroirs. Normally we are going a little bit to the extremes.
Could be, for example, going nearer to the coast. With these extremes you can achieve
different conditions, maybe you can have different styles. Special things."
"Chile has a lot of Montains,
for this we have a lot of mesoclimates and into the mesoclimates
we have a lot of different kind of soil. And the quality of the wine depends where are you.
In Chile we have all the French variety, but the style of the wine is the style of the land.
Few know that Chile is the oldest wine producing country in the New World with almost 500 years of tradition.
However, the evolution in quality production was slower to develop here than other New World regions.
By the 1990s, no longer content with a reputation for value wines, the industry
shifted its focus to quality. With over a billion dollars in new investment, massive replanting and
development of new regions, Chile was ready to take on the global market.
But was the world ready?
One producer took extraordinary steps to prove that Chile's wines could rival the best.
"In the old days
the French argued that they had the terroir and they, and somehow the historical wines were French
and Italian and European, but the New World has equally excellent conditions to produce world-class wines".
Unsatisfied with the global perception of Chile's wines, Chadwick gambled
the industry's reputation in the historic 2004 Berlin tasting.
Repeated in Brazil, Tokyo and here, in Toronto in 2006, a jury of top wine writers and buyers
placed Chilean wines ahead of some of the best labels from Bordeaux and Tuscany, in blind evaluations.
The experts were stunned.
"I think the result was shocking to the judges because they didn't expect Chile to perform at that level,
because here we're really talking about
the best, the first growth of Bordeaux, the super Tuscans of Italy and the very best Vintage. So to come first and second
on top of the best of the world was very surprising and also our bottles cost around 100 dollars.
The same price that we're comparing ourselves to, we need to pay 700 euros"
Chile was finally gaining respect internationally,
being recognized as a region that delivered quality and complexity at every price level.
Established producer Mario Pablo Silva knows what brought that change about
"The mind of the people in Chile, the producer is thinking in quality not in quantity.
We start planting on the foothill of the Andes mountain and also very close to the Pacific.
This has been a very big change in Chile"
Chile was on the rise. For years it had been known for its good value Cabernet Sauvignon,
but now the labels were changing. New grape varieties were shipping to the world.
Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Syrah and Chile's signature grape, Carménère,
were getting international attention.
"Finally you know that we are in a country that have a great potential for producing diversity of wine.
Good wines and good price wine also".
In the sophisticated urban centers of Chile, there's a new appreciation for the country's fine wines.
Here in one of Santiago's top wine boutiques, master sommelier Héctor Vergara
shares his passion for his country's wines.
"No, there is a whole new generation of winemakers is making the big change, engineering wise.
The wines more and more are reflecting the place from where they come from.
This one is a Hillside Vineyard, planted on the slopes.
The big changes that I notice in Chilean wines, the improvement in quality
I mean when you go to the countryside, you visit the vineyards.
Now you see the application, the investment that has been put into it".
Across town at Santiago's Ritz-Carlton, sommelier Magda Saleh y Jacobo
oversees an extensive seller featuring 365 of Chile's best vintages
"We have the largest wine list in South America. Our customer
they come here and they want to know about Chilean wines.
It's amazing because the good condition of weather to produce the perfect wine.
We do have a very good result and we are very proud and the people really love it.
It's Chilean".
Beyond the city the traditional lifestyle lives on, in the vineyards of Casa Silva
"the huasos" perfect their skills.
These horsemen embody the spirit that has propelled the wine industry to new heights.
"A bit different from your Canadian"
It's much much different than rodeo at home.
Dominic Harmsworth is the export manager here
and has witnessed the dramatic changes firsthand.
"I think Chile has got a bit of a spring in its step at the moment.
We as a country in the old days offered pretty much a lot of the same and now
you're seeing new valleys being discovered. Exciting regions with new varieties.
I think Chile has now got something pretty healthy to shout about.
We're measuring everything that we can, above and below ground and
this is all with a view to properly understanding our micro terroir which is an
overused word but I think here we can apply it correctly".