However, there is another important character in this story: the Andes Mountain Range. It was born 30 million years ago, during the geological period known as Oligocene, wherever you look at this massif it is always observing. It is the second-biggest mountain range in the planet after the Himalayas, and it crosses South America from the Colombian-Venezuelan Guajira up to Cape Horn, and then it appears again in the Antarctic.

The Andes and its foothills in particular, are formed by glacial-river recycled materials in their surface. However, the most interesting thing is that it is like a climate screen. Over the hillside there have grown some vineyards with lots of years of tradition. And its quality is that it avoids the humid winds from Argentina to reach the Central Valley, apart from stopping the cold influence of the Pacific Ocean over the continent. But not only this: it also generates a great temperature range in the ripeness period, of up to 60° Fahrenheit between day and night.

The Chilean Coast Range also plays an important role. Unlike the Andes, it is older and more eroded. It was born 20 kilometres to the South of Arica, in the Camaraca hill, in the Norte Grande, it is a wall that steeply falls over the sea, and it connects with the Chilean Central Valley. In the Norte Chico (IV Region) it has a special feature: it is interrupted by the transversal valleys which are mountain ranges that come off The Andes towards the East-West direction and they are irrigated by the Copiapó, Huasco, Elqui, Limarí, Choapa and Aconcagua Rivers, where there is a lot of vinicultural activity. It continues rising to the South up to 2,000 meters, it reduces its size to the South of the Rapel River, and it rises again when it reaches Concepción being called Nahuelbuta Mountain Range. Geologically, this batholith is characterized by the presence of granite rock in almost all of it, together with big quartz deposits. This granite rock originates soils with qualitative characteristics for the production of some wines. For example, the Apalta Valley is among them.

Another Chilean geographic landmark are the Coastal Plains; long strips between the Pacific Ocean and the Chilean Coast Range. Some ports and cities are situated there; in general, they are located southwards, however they are sporadic between the first and second regions. They fall over steeply in the shape of cliffs, but in the Norte Chico (IV Region) they are wide, and they may reach the 30 kilometres. It happens the same in the Central Area, in the South of the Aconcagua River, where they are very similar according to their extension. In these Plains there are huge sources of limestone (calcium carbonate) and slate soils (metamorphic rock) which are very interesting for the vinicultural development.

Finally, it is the Intermediate Depression (Central Valley) which begins to the South of the Aconcagua (Longitudinal Valley) and it ends in the Chacao Channel and in the north-eastern most point of the Chiloé Island. The depression is formed principally by sedimentations from the Andes Mountain Range, which generally are the result of downpours, colluviums and deposits of volcanic ash. The west most point of the Intermediate Depression is characterized by lower levels of humidity associated with the screen effect the Chilean Coast Range makes, when moving eastwards, this condition varies, and it finds high levels of humidity in the foothills of the Andes Mountain Range (together with higher levels of precipitations, as a result of the screen effect). Simultaneously, while moving to the East, the temperature range increases due to the presence of the Andes and the average temperatures tend to increase, too. The conditions of huge plain areas, the availability of water and the proximity to the cities have made a great number of vineyards settle there, principally large ones.

Nowadays, the vinicultural Chile is divided and subdivided in different areas pursuant to Decree 464, delimiting it in regions (and ruling the productions of wines, categories, varieties, etc.), which at the same time are divided into valleys and communes. The latter one has the same name and delimitation as what is known as commune in political terms. This political classification has become a common point in the way that the wines produced in each valley are defined. For example, today it is undeniable to relate the Maipo Valley to the Cabernet Sauvignon or Casablanca to Sauvignon Blanc. But also, as it is a political and not a technical division, there are serious problems. There are still people who arrive in the Limarí Valleys looking for grapes with warm climate characteristics (due to correlation with the lowest altitude) or, opposite, they create a direct relationship between the highest latitude and the lowest temperatures, taking their new projects to the South of Chile.

The development of new viticultural projects, the knowledge about styles and types of wines, made discover that the existing classification, though it marks a good starting point, did not explain the differences within every valley, commune or area. This showed that, though Chile is politically organized from North to South, viticulturally it is organized East-Westwards. Because of this, it is being tried to give more specificity to each valley adding the East-Westwards variable, by modifying the current decree.

Its geography is defined due to the presence of the Andes Mountain Range, the Intermediate Depression, the Chilean Coast Range and the plains and/or coastal terraces. These, from the Aconcagua southwards, move almost in a simultaneous way, because to the North of the Aconcagua, the Intermediate Depression disappears to give place to the almost union of both mountain ranges which form Valleys that move westwards.

The interaction of the Pacific Ocean and its corresponding cold Humboldt current (which makes the coast beaches almost impossible to use due to the low temperatures of its water), with the Chilean Coast Range and The Andes, which are like a screen, modify the climate strongly in the West-Eastern wards way. The mountain chains vary, at the same time, in height. Part of them move to the central valley’s, generating new sub valleys. That is to say, a lot of variables are combined, and they will modify even more the climate, giving birth to more sectors and subsectors with particular features.

In conclusion, in order to understand viticulture Chile, it is necessary to realize that the classification process is dynamic sectorization or as long as the technicians and professionals are looking for new valleys. Many Old World countries have had experiences in this over 900 years and still no surprises. Anyway, if there's one thing to be sure of is that this zoning always go hand in hand with geography, existing corners and undulations, parent material originated in the mountains, sediment accumulation and valleys. Nowadays, always having on the one side the Pacific Ocean and on the other side the Andes, classifying by climatological variables is more complicated because they will vary in a greater magnitude than the movement of the mountains.

To the above-mentioned, it is not simple to combine a good thought to create a terroir classification in Chile. First, due to the complications of its rare geography, and then, due to the interests of the existing vines. To zone means to create limits; anyway, it is unmistakable to find some zones that, according to the wines produced in the last years, may be grouped in the geography to which they are located. They would classify like this: Los Andes Foothills, Chilean Coast Range Batholith of Granite, Cold Coast Valleys, Volcanic Sedimentations and Intermediate Depression.

In less than thirty years, the production has increased, the acres planted have grown by thousands and the number of winemakers, agronomists and other professionals involved in the issue has its increment. The amount of existing vineyards in the country went from a few dozen to more than two hundred, most of them vineyards relatives and / or boutiques. The vast majority, under strict quality precepts, putting all your efforts in producing world-class wines. The almost anonymous or from the disrepute into which fell many times the Chilean — produced bulk wine without much care for markets demanding little or nothing — it is certain that the path to date by local producers is to be at least surprising.

A conjunction between finance capital which increased as he grew older and was based in Chile's free market economy, economic openness reflected in the long list of trade agreements signed by Mexico with other nations and the transfer and incorporation of technology and knowledge excellence have become a growing presence of Chilean wines in the world. More than a hundred countries and all continents, Chilean exports continues to grow and currently hovers Chile among the top ten producers of bottled wine in the world and the first five of the New World. In total numbers, the growth of Chilean production in the period under study has only been surpassed by that of Australia.

A relevant aspect that caused the vinicultural development in Chile was the arrival of great foreign investments. At the end of the 70s, Miguel Torres opened the path to the foreign investment in the vinicultural field. It also stands out the fact that he was the first one in bringing “fresh capitals” to Chile in a hard period of time of history, very discussed. Other investors and famous wine businessmen, coming principally from the United States and France, apart from bringing capitals to the country, they have made the national vinicultural activity bigger through its presence in the course of the last 20 years.

Chile has a competitive and modern business philosophy; a consolidation of foreign renowned producers; a production focused on the export to the most important international markets. It has well organized companies and with the most modern technologies not only in the wineries, but also in the vineyards; with oenologists with university degrees, as a requirement demanded by the law and with good strategies of marketing, commercialization and distribution. Its wines have continuous presence in the great international wine fairs and an excellent price-quality relation. It maintains international commercial agreements for the free market of its products, and it has a rising economic and political stability. Its position and recognition abroad attracts the great influence of tourists and imposes its landscape beauty in the wonderful wine routes of the country.

In the present, the vine cultivation is characterized by the search of balance between production volume and quality, or a relation that the responsible oenologist wants to use. The elements to achieve this regulation go from pruning, tipping or green pruning, up to the management of productivity through irrigation. In fact, today, it is common to option to the irrigation limitation to cause a hydro stress, when it is estimated that the balance between the expected productivity and quality is not the appropriate one.

The automatization and the necessity of producing wines of excellence massively, determine that it is indispensable to have the cooperation of more perfect elements and the use of physical agents, such as cold and heat, manageable at will. Likewise, the equipment of bottling, the bottles, corks and other supplies have to be of first class, so as not to frustrate the good intention of the responsible oenologist. Finally, the application of traceability integral systems is indispensable for detecting and correcting the origin of any fault in the productive chain.

Repeatedly, it is mentioned the quality of the Chilean wines, their commercial aspects, economic significance, technical analyses, medals, awards, qualifications and many other edges of the topic, but it is omitted the most important of everything: the human beings involved in the productive chain. Conclusion: more than 100,000 Chileans have their support thanks to the viticulture. If it is supposed that each of them maintains the other three people in average, it is concluded that around 300,000 people are sheltered by the protecting wine.

These estimations show that the importance and nobility of the wine goes much farther than just giving us satisfactions in the world area, due to its more and more recognized excellence. The nobility that embodies it, is also expressed in its transcendent social impact. That obliges to respect, especially, the most humble members of the chain, which compromises those who have it or directed it, and the State. The wine, as a consequence, before and first, has a very important social function. As it happened at the beginning of last century, in the course of the last ten years of it and first ten of the current one, until the encounter in the Bicentenary, the scenario of the wine varied radically compared to the immediately previous century.

These changes coincide with a spectacular irruption to the wine world market and an increase of the plantations of vineyards, all of them of noble varieties, from a minimum of 54,000 in 1994 to more than 140,000 nowadays. The number of wineries that intervene in the world market increased from 15 in 1980 to more than 400 in 2020. The exports, that during the eighties reached an average of 15 million per year, got in the last year to US $2000 MM. All this pleasant situation is pushed by a marked interest of businessmen and investors for participating in the vinicultural market because, as it occurred in the centenary years, to have a brand winery gives social panache and prestige, apart from being in many cases a good business.