The day before, Santiago had sweltered in 95 degree weather, but this morning's mist stayed around to give us a chilly, overcast day. I was sitting with Aurelio Montes of Montes Alpha and Gilbert Rokvam, Lafite Rothschild's retired Maitre de Chais and supervisor of their foreign vineyards. With us was Gilbert's new winemaker at Los Vascos , and a few more of the French expatriate wine community. As we were savoring our Chilean dessert, up came Michel Friou , the young Frenchman who makes the wine for Lapostolle . Grabbing a few minutes to come down to say hello, Michel told us how he was working all hours to harvest Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Merlot all at the same time, before they got over-ripe.
Chile has possibly one of the world's most ideal climates for growing grapes.
On my first visit last year I was won over by its tremendous potential. I began to wonder if the almost masochistic suffering of the French is perhaps not the only way to make great wine Still, you can always have too much of a good thing. Here in Chile, the challenge for a winemaker is to compensate for sun and drought. Too much sun and the grapes ripen without maturing. In other words, they have plenty of sugar but the skins are not fully developed to give the depth and complexity of a great wine.