Chilean Wine Star Eduardo Chadwick

Yves Pouzet is a French- Chilean winemaker who owns a small Estate where he makes biodynamic wines and sells enough to make a decent living. A very satisfied man, he explains the pillars of biodynamic wines similar to the national motto of France- Liberté, égalité, fraternité (French for "liberty, equality, fraternity). Every fine winemaker must have these three mottos, he says-rueing that in today’s’ cut-throat competition, these elements are missing in most producers-except perhaps the biodynamic ones. When I visited his winery before leaving for Huilo-Huilo where the Chile by CMB wine competition was being held, he said if there was one Chilean wine producer who met this benchmark, it was Eduardo Chadwick. Such is the reputation enjoyed by Eduardo Chadwick even amongst his peers. He is truly an Ambassador of Chilean wines with an eye on getting international recognition for them as high quality wines and dispel the misconception that Chile makes only cheap, quaffable wines.

I first met Eduardo Chadwick in 2008 and interviewed him extensively during his visit to India when his wines were being imported by Ace Beveragez. The then President of India Pratibha Patil had visited Chile barely a couple of months earlier in April 2008. As a part of the interesting sightseeing tours her entourage enjoyed, there was a visit to Viña Errázuriz where she also met Eduardo Chadwick, the charismatic owner of the company and the uncrowned hero of what came to be known as ‘The Berlin Tasting’ in 2004.

Viñedo Chadwick 2000, the ultra-premium wine that had won in a blind tasting against the top wines of Bordeaux and Italy of 2000/2001 vintages at the Berlin Tasting in 2004, had been chosen as ‘Wine Legend’ by Decanter magazine a month earlier this year for its October print edition, placing it among the most prestigious wines around the world, such as Château Margaux, Château Lafite and Solaia.

Berlin Tasting 2004-2013

The Chadwick vineyard close to the Maipo River was planted in 1992 but the wine Viñedo Chadwick named after Eduardo Chadwick’s father AlfonsoChadwick Errázuriz, wasan 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, owner of the family-owned winery, organized a blind tasting of 16 Bordeaux and Bordeaux-styled wines, including First Growths, in Berlin. Sixteen wines were- 6 Chilean, 6 French and 4 Italian from the 2000 and 2001 vintages.' Viñedo Chadwick 2000 received the highest average score, followed by another Errázuriz wine, Seña 2001.

Eduardo says, ‘We wanted to showcase to the world that Chile has its own terroir and the people should compare our wines with the best of Bordeaux and Tuscany. We decided to invite professionals, journalists and critics to taste our best against some great wines.’ 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.

Act of Desperation

 Eduardo says that he organised the Berlin Tasting out of shear desperation. ‘Robert Parker had no interest in visiting Chile in the ‘90sso I decided to organise the Berlin tasting in 2004 out of sheer desperation. I wanted to see how our wines stacked up against 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 was only hoping that one of them will be in the top five.’

He conducted these blind tastings subsequently in 18 more cities around the world, from Los Angeles to Tokyo and Stockholm to Santiago from 2004-2013 and the results were very gratifying, with his wines ranking among the top. ‘We discontinued them after celebratory dinners at the various venues in 2014. We had been able to prove that Chilean wines are among the top wines in the world, thanks to our terroir, special climate and the latest technology’. In fact, his relatively new Don Maximiano winery that was commissioned in 2010 and I had visited the same year even before being commissioned officially, is truly a state-of-the-art gravity-flow winery- a must-visit for every visitor to Chile.

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. Seña was a joint venture promoted with Robert Mondavi in the 1980s but when Mondavi Corporation was sold to Constellation Brands in 2004, Eduardo was able to buy back the shares from the new owners  and is a full owner now.   

Seña is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon/Carménère and is a lot cheaper at $ 250. KAI is yet another iconic wine, a 100% Carménère; selling for $ 188.50 Errázuriz Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve sounds like a bargain basement price at $135- all prices at the duty-free shop at the Santiago International Airport. The top rung wines are now sold through only Négociants, says Eduardo as we discuss the wine scenario in India. 

Top not for India

With the top wines commanding such astronomical prices, the mid-ranged Max Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon sounds like a great bargain for $19.50. But unfortunately, it is considered too expensive even at that price point in India. ‘We have had to discontinue with Ace Beveragez since they found the prices of our premium wines too high. But as a policy we do not negotiate on the quality. We do sell the Caliterra range ($15.50 at the Duty-Free shop in Santiago) through Fratelli in India (earlier through Finewinesnmore-editor) but that is a budget segment and we need to have a different channel for our premium segment wines.’ 

Eduardo commands a lot of respect in Chile as I could see during lunch when a lot of visitors to the Golf Club came and exchanged pleasantries with him, praising his top wines. Hopefully, we will get a couple these iconic Chilean wines soon in India. Meanwhile, this Ambassador of Chilean wines has proven to the world that Chilean wines are not necessarily ‘cheap and value for money’ wines anymore and are now among world’s best quality wines.

For earlier articles please click

Chile: Viñedo Chadwick becomes Decanter Wine Legend

Star Interview : Eduardo Chadwick of Errazuriz

Subhash Arora

Berlin Tasting 2004 Results

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