De Martino Cascara Limarí Valley Chardonnay, Chile 2013 (£8.99, Marks & Spencer) Chile’s winemakers have always been dab hands with the kind of wine that, while fulfilling a need at £5.99 on a wet Wednesday evening, wouldn’t get the pulse racing on a Saturday night. But outcrops of style and excitement have been forming recently as the Chileans have pushed into new geographic and stylistic territory. The northerly Limarí region is one such site, and the De Martino family are experts in harnessing its mix of fluorescent light and cool breezes in chardonnays of depth, texture and freshness, such as M&S’s superb value Cascara.
Undurraga TH Maule Carignan, Chile 2011 (£13.15, H2Vin) One of the key members of Chile’s new wave, the De Martinos were also among the first to explore the potential of the neglected stock of old carignan vines in the traditional winemaking area of the Maule Valley. Dense, multilayered, spicy, rich and chewy, the results, in a wine such as De Martino Vigno 2012 (£23.95, Berry Bros & Rudd), have a Mediterranean feel to them, with earthy and herbal tones. These typical old-vine qualities are also apparent in Undurraga’s version from the Loncomillo and Cauquenes sub-regions of Maule, which has a winning berry succulence, liquorice, spice and hearty tannins.
Montes Outer Limits Old Roots Cinsault, Chile 2014 (£16.50, Adnams) Producers in Itata are experimenting with techniques such as ageing in clay amphorae (De Martino again, with their brilliant Viejas Tinajas wines, a Cinsault and a Moscatel, from Berry Bros & Rudd and Joseph Barnes Wines), or working with very few chemicals (such as the low-sulphur Rogue Vine Grand Itata Blanco 2013, £17.50, St Andrews Wine Company). Nowhere else in the world is making a speciality of muscat for whites and the unheralded cinsault for reds, with the latter crafted into a delightful, graceful, perfumed cherry-berry lighter style by Montes.
