The final big advantage Chile has for the UK consumer is the ability to expand and move into newer varieties – which is exactly what has happened over the past 10 years. Since 1994 production has gone up from 277 million litres of wine to 504 million litres in 2001.

So, here’s our choice of a wine from Chile priced under a fiver that is worth a tasting. If you are not normally a drinker of Chilean wine or if you fancy trying something different, you could do worse than try it.

Cono Sur Pinot Noir, Rapel Valley, 14%. available from majestic.co.uk
Cono Sur was founded in 1993 and makes a virtue of its modernity. It has a 300 hectare vineyard in Chimbarongo and long term buying contracts in all the other main wine regions including Mulchen, the southernmost vineyard in Chile.

A Chilean classic

The Estate at Chimbarongo is a wine-making micro-climate in Colchagua, part of the Lago, or Lake, Rapel Region in the Central Valley. The geography of Chile is of a very narrow ribbon country. Thus in areas like Chimbarongo, the dependable influence of the Pacific makes for cool, often foggy mornings which usually lead to an excellent growing season.

The Pinot Noir 2005 was grown 65% at the Santa Elisa estate in Chimbarongo and 35% in the far south at Mulchen. Santa Elisa Estate, with its stony soils, scarce fertility and poor surface water retention, is ideal for Pinot. It features a somewhat colder micro-climate than most of the surrounding Rapel Valley, with enhanced and really thick morning mist. On the vines the result is a slow and gradual maturing process, with highly concentrated aromas and flavours. This already privileged fruit is combined with grapes grown at Quitralman Estate, located at one of the sothernmost Chilean wine terroirs.

This Pinot Noir is a wine with a wonderful nose of strawberry jam, raspberry, leather, slightly roasted tobacco and vanilla notes. Cono Sur Pinot Noir has been made using modern methods with a cool fermentation in stainless steel tanks. This means that the wine retains the pure strawberry and raspberry varietal characters of Pinot Noir without any influence from oak. It provides a long and soft perception, elegant and clean. The after-taste is pleasant and surprisingly persistent. This is a friendly, yet complex wine, say Cono Sur.