At Chile wine gala, climate change and water use in focus

CHILE’S vintners are increasingly thinking about how to adapt to shifts in climate and drier weather that has seen the Andean country gripped by drought for over a decade.

At the Catad’or World Wine Awards in Santiago, winemakers and industry insiders said producers were shifting south to regions with more rain as central areas became drier or building reservoirs to trim reliance on rainfall.

“It’s something that worries all of us vineyards,” said Magdalena Villasante from Vina Undurraga, which won the event’s top award for its Syrah Carignan Grenache blend.

“The truth is it has been very complex for all vineyards, and in some way, I think that is why many vineyards have been moving further south... because further south, one has more rain.”

Chile is the world’s fourth-largest wine exporter, but dry weather has pushed vineyards to shift. Land for wine growing dropped some 4 per cent in the five years until 2020, with the central Santiago Metropolitan Region, the country’s third-largest wine producing region, seeing a decline of nearly 14 per cent, official data show.

Neighbouring Argentina, famed for its Malbec wines grown in the foothills of the Andes, has been grappling with drought and frosts that have hit growers this year, while earlier in 2022 a Mexican winery clashed with a local gang over water use.

Sergio Rojas, national director of Chile’s Agricultural Development Institute (INDAP), says the government is working with small farmers to improve wine quality and create techniques and tools to help reduce the impact of drought.

“We’ll probably see more wines from Aysen and Magallanes (in Chile’s deep south) in the future what with climate change,” Rojas told Reuters. “So this is a tool we have available to strengthen production and diversify.” REUTERS