Chile should go 100% organic

The Chilean wine industry should convert all its vineyards to organic practices according to one respected winemaker in the country.

Organic vineyards at Emiliana in Chile’s Colchagua wine region

“Chile should get behind organics,” stated Grant Phelps, chief winemaker at Viña Casas del Bosque, speaking to the drinks business in Chile last month.

Phelps, a New Zealander who makes wine in Chile, said that the nation benefitted from ideal conditions for organic viticulture and would enjoy a significant competitive advantage if all its vinous output was made with organically-grown grapes.

“It’s so easy to be organic in Chile because it doesn’t rain throughout the entire growing season,” he said.

Continuing, he proposed, “Chile could say as an industry let’s go 100% organic and they could do it… and it would be amazing if consumers knew that the wine was organic just because it was from Chile.”

However, he admitted that such a movement would be challenged by the high number of small family-owned growers in the country, some of whom the industry would find it hard to convince to change their viticultural practices.