HAVANA TIMES – Climate change is affecting Chile with water shortages and rising temperatures, and among its many impacts, it has already forced both large and small wine producers to migrate south in search of better conditions for their vines.
The territory of this elongated South American country of 19.5 million inhabitants benefits from natural protection against pests that affect vineyards, being flanked by the Andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean on its eastern and western borders, and by the Atacama Desert and Antarctic territory to the north and south respectively.
“We are a biogeographic island. Chile is full of natural barriers, so we don’t have many pests. Not just any species manages to cross the borders and establish itself here,” explained Olga Barbosa, Ph.D. in Ecology and academic at the private Universidad Austral de Valdivia.
This uniqueness enables a “sustainable viticulture that bets on quality rather than quantity,” she added in a conversation with IPS from the city of Valdivia, located about 770 kilometers south of Santiago, the capital of the province of the same name and part of the southern Los Rios region.
“We have unique characteristics because we are naturally unique,” Barbosa said, alternate director of the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, which has led numerous sustainability projects with vineyards for 15 years.
According to 2023 data, Chile is the fourth-largest wine exporter in the world, behind France, Italy, and Spain.
Large vineyards remain in the central regions of O’Higgins and Maule but are increasingly moving south, particularly to the BioBío region, although they are already experimenting with initiatives in even more southern regions.
Small-scale winemakers, on the other hand, are establishing themselves in the regions of Araucanía and Los Ríos, south of BioBío. They are even venturing into more southern places like Chiloé Island and the municipality of Coyhaique, in the Aysén region, the second southernmost in the country, just behind Magallanes.
Barbosa admitted that in the Valdivia province “it is very difficult to produce wine. The grapes grow well, of very high quality and at different times than in the central region, but there is a shortage of analysis laboratories.”
“Most vineyards that can make wine do so with the best possible conditions in their cellars, but it is a gigantic challenge,” she stated.
Two Experiences in Valdivia
Viviana Valdivia, an agronomist, works at the Rebellin small family vineyard, covering 3.5 hectares, located 15 kilometers from the city of Valdivia.
Rebellín started in 2019 and now produces 5,000 kilos of grapes that are turned in