Wine trainer launches Chilean wine documentary
A TV wine educator is launching an online three-part documentary to demonstrate the new wave of Chilean wines and make it easier for consumers to understand them.
Raul Diaz, who owns wine education business Wine Training Ltd and presents the wine segment on Channel Four’s Sunday Brunch, is releasing a documentary exploring Chilean Wine, which was filmed in December last year, on Wine Training’s dedicated Youtube channel.
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The series will explore wines from the ‘New Chile” concentrating on vineyards in three of the country’s major wine-producing regions – the Von Siebenthal winery in the Aconcagua Valley, Concha y Toro in Maipo and Viña Ventolera in the Leyda Valley, and feature interviews with leading progressive winemakers Marcelo Papa of Concha y Toro, Mauro von Siebenthal, and Ventolera’s Stefano Gandolini.
Diaz told db the idea behind the documentary was to focus on regions that not only represent the essence of Chile as a modern wine-producing country but that would be easy for viewers to recognize and presented in a simple and relaxed way.
“The documentary focuses on the diversity of Chile as a wine country – the influence of the climate, the classic grape varieties that can produce very different styles of wine,” he said. “It gives the chance to discover the three areas, taste the wines, interview three leading Chilean winemakers in their own vineyard in a very relaxed way and match the wines with typical Chilean food.”
Chile facing a crossroads
Diaz argued that Chile is facing a crucial moment in its development and needs to capitalize on the better wines its producers are creating by communicating this “new Chile’ better. He warned that although many producers are embracing the new attitude and are increasingly prepared to take risks to ensure “very precise” wines that showed the terroirs, progress was slow due to a conservative, traditional mentality which was not willing to embrace the opportunities, or cater for new, younger consumers.
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“The old ‘cheap and cheerful’ is a very dangerous place to be if you think about the near future,” he warned. “Chile today is ready to make the next step because the producers are making better wines with more care, but the key will be communicating this. If you build up a strong and attractive Chilean wine story behind the wines, the consumers will identify this country and its wines in a straight-forward way.”
Chilean producers were “shy” in showing the country as a fun and modern wine country like New Zealand, he said, but argued that Chile was as good as, and could rival New Zealand if it was able to communicate its story better.
“Simple associations make people buy and drink more wine,” he said.
The first 20-minute instalment of the documentary showcasing the Aconcagua Valley region launched today, with the next two videos to be released over the next few months, followed by the full hour-long documentary in December.
The Chilean-born former sommelier launched the Youtube channel in February to run short videos for both the trade and consumers to fill a gap in the market, after arguing that there was a strong demand for wine training that was not being fully catered for. Educators needed to strikes a better balance between being informative without being “know it all”, he said.
