Chilean wines iconic in spite of youth

I was in Santiago just a few weeks ago and participated in a lively, informal discussion about iconic wines from Chile. We were enjoying a casual lunch, and in our group were Chilean wine professionals, as well as seasoned wine writers including Robert Joseph from England and Jorge Lucki from Brazil.

"Can we even say that there are iconic wines from Chile?" asked Lucki. After all, the oldest famous wine from Chile is Don Melchor with its first vintage in 1987, a mere 25 years ago. In regions such as Burgundy, where winemaking dates back more than 1,500 years, a 25-year old vineyard is considered young. Mature vines are considered at least 30 years old and ideally between 40 to 60 years old.

So the first question is whether Chile, as a relative newcomer to the arena of fine wine, is qualified to use the word "iconic" to describe its best production. If we define the word broadly, to include high quality wines that have become synonymous with the best wines from the country and have achieved international recognition, then there would be a handful.

We rattled off names such as Almaviva, the joint venture between Mouton Rothschild and Concha Y Toro in 1996; Don Melchor, as mentioned, in 1987; Sena, initially a joint venture between Errazuriz and Robert Mondavi, with its first release in 1995; and pioneer Don Maximiliano, with a debut back in 1989.

After this initial list of four, we debated over another group of about 10 names. Does Clos Apalta, a Carmenere-based red wine established by Casa Lapostolle, belong in the iconic group when its first vintage was a mere 15 years ago? What about Montes M, Altair or Carmin de Peumo from Concha Y Toro?

Why not Casa Real from Santa Rita or Kai or La Cumbre from Errazuriz? Has quality from these wines been consistent enough over the past decade, which is about how long most of them have been around?