Jane Anson

Grape & Grain | Rothschild takes Chilean wine to a new level as overseas sales grow

Chile’s exports to the US and China are increasing year on year and producers such as Rothschild and Concha Y Toro are expanding to meet the demand

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Concha Y Toro’s vineyard in Colchagua Valley, Chile. Photo: Corbis

Jane Anson

Published: 10:00pm, 4 May 2016Updated: 10:38am, 9 May 2016

We’re driving through newly planted vines about 250 kilometres to the south of Santiago in the valley of Maule. The off-road vehicle is easily taking the dirt and stone-filled slopes, but it’s disconcerting to be hanging off the back. Around us are about 162 hectares of the Vina Villavicencio vineyard, the latest Rothschild venture in the country.

The Rothschilds bought this vineyard in 2013, their third Chilean project, which began with a 1997 venture between Baroness Philippine de Rothschild and the Guilisasti/Larrain-Vial family of Concha Y Toro.

Baroness Philippine de Rothschild (centre) with the mayor of Bordeaux (right) and French minister of agriculture Bruno Le Maire (second right) . Photo: AFP

Baroness Philippine launched a premium wine called Almaviva, as did her father Baron Philippe de Rothschild with Opus One in Napa (in a joint venture with Robert Mondavi).

“This was really the first time that a high profile wine was launched from Chile and aimed squarely at the international market,” Felipe Larrain Vial, CEO of Almaviva, says over a vertical tasting of the wines a few days before the visit to Maule. “Today it is sold 90 per cent through wine merchants in Bordeaux.”