Chile has privileged conditions for wine production. The Mediterranean characteristics of its climate with four well-defined seasons, plus a unique geography and topography ranging from the driest desert in the world to the north, the Andes Mountains to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Patagonian Ice Fields to the south are natural barriers that isolate and protect the country from pests and diseases found on the rest of the continent and results in healthy agricultural practices with very little need for the use of agro-chemicals.
Chile is the only wine-producing country in the world that is free of phylloxera, the louse that triggered a great before and after in worldwide viticultural history. It provoked a great viticultural crisis in Europe that began in 1863, and it took 30 years to learn to manage by grafting noble vines onto American rootstock that was naturally resistant to the pest. Today most of the vineyards in the world grow their vines the same way.
Chile is the only country that can plant vines directly, without the need for grafting and using their own natural roots, and therefore, the variety grows in the purist possible way. The advantage of these vines is that their roots can reach great depths and extract a sense of minerality, which lend unique, high-quality wines. They also live much longer—up to 100 years in some cases. This excellence and its exclusivity have turned these wines from ungrafted vines into virtual gems of the enological world.
