Description

Researching this Chile report – my seventh – was more pleasurable than ever. Over three weeks in December 2022, I travelled some 3,500 km and tasted wines from 216 wineries in the country. I feel lucky to have had a front-row seat to witness the changes of the last decade. And I couldn’t be happier about what has happened. After all, I was the person who described Chile as the “Volvo of the wine industry”, a justified comment that it took me a long time to live down.

Chilean wine has never been in a better place. Its mass-market wines are good value and rarely less than drinkable. But it’s the more ambitious wines that really deserve our attention. These, too, are mostly affordable. Outrageously so in some cases. Chile’s diversity – and quality – is not widely recognised around the world; it is significant that several of the top-rated wines this year are from lesser-known regions and grape varieties too.

This report is my most in-depth yet, with tasting notes for the 889 wines which rated 90 points or more, my podium of leading winemakers, wineries and wines for 2023 and my ever-evolving Chilean classification.