Wine History

Wine grapes (Vitis vinifera) are not native to the Americas; they arrived in the 1500s with the Spanish missionaries who needed wine to celebrate the Catholic mass.

Fray [Brother] Francisco de Carabantes is credited with bringing the first vines into Chile through the port of Concepción in 1548. This was the País (pa-EES) grape that is similar to California’s Mission grape. Such was the variety’s success in adapting to Chilean soils that vineyards were quickly planted throughout the country from the Limarí Valley in the north to the Bío-Bío Valley in the south. Uncannily, although quality wine production historically tended toward the center of the country, modern technology has once again extended the frontiers of Chile’s fine wine appellations (Denomination of Origin or D.O.) precisely to its original northern and southern extremes.

The 16th century residents of the burgeoning capital city of Santiago—mostly sons and daughters of the earliest Spanish immigrants—clamored for more wine to quench their thirst and whet their appetites as well as to satisfy their spiritual needs. The surrounding Maipo Valley proved to be a tremendous source of red wine, and Chile’s first wine boom began in earnest.

With time improvements in maritime transportation made cross-Atlantic travel possible for the upper classes. Chile, freshly emancipated from Spain in 1810, yearned for knowledge of its wider European roots, and members of the country’s wealthy families embarked upon intercontinental pilgrimages that would profoundly change Chilean life, culture, and wine forever. France was a favorite destination, and soon French customs, from food to clothing to architecture and fine wine consumption, flourished in Santiago. It did not take long for the first new French-style wineries to appear on the outskirts of the city.

To know more about this, please visit the Wines of Chile site