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 Wine Legend is a distinction given each month only to those wines that possess unique characteristics over the rest of the wines in the world. Initiated by Decanter magazine in 2012, it recognises wines that have achieved legendary status, choosing a vintage that is renowned as being particularly excellent. The wines all have pedigree and track record, and are considered benchmark in their region. It is not important that the vintage chosen is still commercially available.
The Chadwick vineyard close to the Maipo River was planted in 1992 but the wine Viñedo Chadwick named after Eduardo Chadwick’s father Alfonso Chadwick Errázuriz, was an immediate success from the very first vintage 1999. Subsequent vintages received Robert Parker's highest scores for a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon for a number of years. In 2004 Eduardo Chadwick, the owner of the family-owned winey organized a blind tasting in Berlin, of 16 Bordeaux and Bordeaux-styled wines, including several First growths. This wine had received the highest average score, followed by another Errázuriz wine, Seña 2001.
Eduardo Chadwick, President of Viñedo Chadwick is naturally thrilled. This is indeed a wonderful recognition that consolidates Viñedo Chadwick’s highly successful history as a world-class wine achieved through a passionate commitment to quality, perseverance and constant quest of the pure expression of the terroir.
Berlin Tasting 2004 onwards
In an exclusive interview with Subhash Arora of delWine in Delhi in 2008, Eduardo said,’ 'We wanted to showcase to the world that Chile has its own terroir and they should compare our wines with those of Bordeaux and Tuscany. We decided to invite professionals, journalists and critics to taste our best against some great wines. We selected sixteen wines- six Chilean, six French and four Italian from the 2000 and 2001 vintages.'
'Steven Spurrier who had conducted the Judgment at Paris 1976 tastings with top Bordeaux and California wines had agreed to conduct the blind tastings. The blind tastings were conducted in Berlin and that's how the event came to be known as Berlin Tasting.'
'I was very thrilled when Seña 2000 was judged at no. 5 position. We did not expect our wines to do so well against the likes of Margaux, Latour, Lafitte and Sassicaia. You can imagine how pleased we were when Seña 2001 was declared no. 2 and the Viñedo Chadwick came out a winner!'
'Similar results were achieved by our wines in tastings that followed in Brazil, Tokyo, Toronto, which continued to be known as Berlin Tasting due to the unique style of tasting,' he had said. In fact, a series of 21 similar tastings led by Eduardo were conducted around the world between 2004 and 2013. The results were remarkably consistent, as Steven Spurrier highlighted: “These and other tastings totalled over 15 nations and reached more than 1,400 wine experts. Chilean wines were placed among the top 3 places in 20 out of the 22 events, achieving a remarkable 90% success rate in the overall preferences. It is this consistency across different vintages over a ten-year period that is so important.”
Act of Desperation
In an interview with DB last month, Eduardo admitted that he organised the Berlin Tasting out of shear desperation. “Robert Parker had no interest in visiting Chile in the ‘90s, which was insulting, so I put on the Berlin tasting in 2004 out of desperation. I wasn’t trying to outsmart anyone, but I wanted to see how our wines would score alongside the likes of Lafite, Latour, Margaux, Sassicaia and Ornellaia. I wanted to put our wines alongside the best in the world and give them a chance without any bias. I had humble expectations and was hoping for one of them to get into the top five.” All wines selected were of 2000/2001 vintage in order to compare similar wines. Chateau Latour 2000 had in fact, been rated 100 points by Robert Parker.
James Suckling, the renowned international wine critic has paid maximum attention to Chilean fine wines in recent years. He gave the perfect score of 100 to Seña 2015.
Limited Production
Viñedo Chadwick comprises 15 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon vines that were planted in 1992, with a plant density of 4,166 plants per hectare. Small average yields per hectare vary from 2.5 to 5 tons, depending on the season. Only five to ten thousand bottles are produced each vintage. These are strictly allocated to the top wine markets around the world, says Eduardo.
Eduardo Chadwick not only promotes his wines, he believes there is need to promote Chilean wines- not only as value-for-money wines but high quality wines. 'We also need to tell the sophisticated consumers about the different Terroirs in Chile and how we make unique wines.'
Subhash Arora |