Chile has a surprise up its sleeve with "good-quality yet-affordable-wines", says Maggie Beale. The "Flavours of Chile" event in Hong Kong this summer showcased a range of wines from the vineyards of 22 producers, along with a variety of speciality food items ranging from avocados, honey and medicinal herbs to abalone, fish and seafood.

Packed with Hong Kong importers, the show had some surprises for Chilean wine aficionados, including a stunning single variety - called "Carmenere".

Dismissed as a fast-growing Merlot, Carmenere was treated with indifference until only a few years ago when a professor at Bordeaux University in France examined the Chilean grapes and uncovered their true status.

They are now being feted as Chile's own star varietal. By judicious pruning, strict harvesting and closely-monitored post-fermentation maceration, producers in Chile are making a wine that will easily uphold their reputation as some of the world's leading winemakers.

An outstanding Carmenere shown at the Flavours of Chile 2004 event came from the much-respected winemaker Alejandro Hernández, founder of the Portal del Alto vineyards and senior professor at the Universidad Católica de Chile, who has taught many vintners and winemakers of Chile for over 30 years.

Hernández has vineyards in the most prominent wine-growing valleys of the country. For the prized Gran Reserva label, his carmenere grapes are grown in the Maipo Valley, at a latitude of 34 degrees, just south of Santiago, the capital. Commercial Director Javier Salazar says: "The area has just the right microclimate for this grape. Balance is the key to a good wine, especially that between sugar and tannins which has to be perfect for a wine of superior quality, and much of that balance begins with the vineyard's location."

The aromatic intensity of the wine is richly heady, full on the palate with black cherry (the characteristic that got Carmenere confused with Merlot), and blackberry with lingering spice.

Intense, with the full-rounded tannins gained from precise barrel ageing, it is a wine to linger over and savour to the full. Although Hernández believes the wine benefits from four to five years ageing, I had an ambrosial Gran Reserva Carmenere 2002 vintage this week with quail, morels and truffle sauce that was a marriage made in heaven. Look for Portal del Alto wines in "The Wine Buff" shops in North Point and Wanchai and at Vins Gallery in Shatin.

* Maggie Beale is an international food & wine critic and judge; and president of the Wine Writers.

Source: Daily China