There are about 12 million people in Chile, and judging by the amount of wine they export, half the population must be working in the vineyards.
And from Chile comes this winner: the 97 Cono Sur pinot noir. The bottle is black, the tiny label is black and the scrawly silver writing of the name is just about invisible. It is artistic, but you cannot read it. But the winemaker knew what he was doing, even if the graphics artist seemed to have been carried away by a couple of barrels of the 1996 vintage. Taste it: can you blame him? The Chilean wine world is in exciting ferment, and this pinot noir - made by a young American named Arthur Massolo - is a good example of the benefits of this cross-fertilisation of minds, methods and grapes.
His motto seems to be 'fruit, fruit, fruit'. This is a wine where you taste the grapes, and they taste just beautiful.
Cono Sur made the first pinot noir from its vineyards in Chimbarongo, in the Rapel Valley south of Santiago, in 1992. The world started sipping, then clapping.
The bottle with the funny label is the famed 20 Barrel version, so called because it is supposed to be made from the best 20 barrels of wine made from that year's crop. Must be big barrels.
This is on special offer for $139 at Watson's Wine Cellar (fax: 2147-3994), in the last two weeks of September. Usually, it costs $179. There is also a riserva which costs $99.