▻ Eduardo Chadwick
In conversation with Eduardo Chadwick
Episode Summary:-
Eduardo Chadwick is the Chilean vintner and visionary who kick-started modern Chilean winemaking and proved to the world that Chile could make fine wine, worthy enough to sit alongside the world’s finest labels. John Stimpfig talks to him about his remarkable Great Wine Life and his struggle to prove that Chile was more than a place for everyday wine. Eduardo talks about the history of his family making wine in Chile, which started in 1870 with Don Maximiano Errázuriz. The family lost control of the wineries for a while due to the politics of the communist and military governments, but his father regained them, and in 1983 invited him to join the company. Eduardo reminisces about the state of the wineries, which were covered in cobwebs and run down. His father persuaded him to go to Bordeaux to study wine and they both attended the 1985 Vinexpo, the second edition of the famous wine trade fair. While in Bordeaux they met Paul Pontallier, the young director of Château Margaux, who had worked as a professor in Chile. “Château Margaux has always been my benchmark,” says Eduardo. He also recalls meeting Emile Peynaud at this home in Archachon and tells John, “Chile always looked to Bordeaux.”
Back in the 1980s, Chile was known for volume, not quality, and it was difficult to attract wine writers to visit the country; there was no industry focus on fine wine. Eduardo talks about how in 1991 Agustin Huneeus, a Chilean vintner who lived in the Napa Valley, wanted to organise a trip for his friend Robert Mondavi, and asked Eduardo to help show him around. Bob Mondavi, his wife Margrit, Augustin and Eduardo spent a week driving around the vineyards of Chile and became firm friends. Robert Mondavi told Edouardo that he believed Chile had the potential to make fine wine, and having seen how his joint venture with the Rothschilds creating Opus One had been instrumental in helping the image of fine wine in Napa, thought that a joint venture in Chile would help Chile’s image. A Mondavi/Chadwick joint venture was born, named Sena, a Chilean Bordeaux blend, with the first vintage launched in 1997.
““For me, fine wine is my passion and my dedication.””
Eduardo’s determination to make fine wine took a further step with the release in 1999 of Vinedo Chadwick. His father, Alfonso, had two great passions, polo and wine (he was one of the world’s top polo players). He built his home in Puente, Alto Maipo, and had his own polo field. On retiring from polo, he allowed Eduardo to plant vineyards over the polo field, which Eduardo had identified as great terroir for Cabernet Sauvignon, and the wine was named in Alfonso’s honour.
The frustration of Chile not being recognised as a place where fine wine could be made drove Eduardo to set up a blind tasting, pitting his three icon wines – Sena, Vinedo Chadwick and Dom Maximiano – against some of the world’s greatest Bordeaux blends. In Asia it was almost impossible to sell fine wines without a Robert Parker rating, but Parker never visited Chile, and even when the wines were tasted they were not rated highly. He asked Steven Spurrier, famed for the 1976 Paris tasting, and René Gabriel, the leading wine critic in Switzerland, to host the event. 36 of Europe’s most knowledgeable and influential wine experts met in Berlin and sat down to evaluate 16 wines from France, Italy and Chile. Bravely, he chose two stellar Bordeaux vintages to compete against, 2000 and 2001. The results changed the perception of Chile forever. Vina Chadwick 2000 took first place, Sena 2001 second, Château Lafite 2000 third and Sena 2000 tied for fourth place with Château Margaux 2001. Eduardo repeated the blind tastings in cities around the world, and his wines always appeared in the top places, but it was the dramatic news from the first tasting, he believes, that finally woke up the world to the fine wine potential of Chile.
Determined to change the image of the wines of Chile, he helped set up Wine of Chile in the United Kingdom, and spent two years in the country, where he studied for his Master of Wine exam. (He passed the tasting exam and two of the technical essays, but failed two others.) He returned to Chile to run the company with further conviction of the style of wine he wanted to produce. Today three of his four daughters are in the company and he sees his role as a mentor. He is excited about the development of the coastal terroirs, and the Las Pizarras Chardonnay and Pinot Noir he is making. He describes how a French geologist helped him identify the schist soils and that he is following the Burgundian model of Grand Crus, looking for minerality and structure.
In 2018, he received the Decanter Man of the Year award, “the final recognition that we were making great wines, part of the fine wine world.” He tells John, “If you look at Chile, we have followed similar paths of recognition as other regions, but 20 years later.” The word that sums him up? “Persistence,” he laughs. Nobody can doubt that his persistence has finally put Chile on the world’s fine wine map.
Running Order:-
-
0.00 – 10.15
“Building the image of Chile fine wine has been a challenge.”
– Eduardo Chadwick’s family history.
– Losing the wineries due to political upheaval and regaining them.
– Joining his father as a young man at the winery.
– Going to Bordeaux to study oenology and meeting Paul Pontallier.
– Planting in the hillsides of Chile. -
10.16 – 18.30
“It was difficult to get recognition, wine writers didn’t to go to Chile.”
– Chile’s struggle to get recognition in the 1980s for fine wine.
– Agustin Huneeus asks Eduardo to take Robert Mondavi around Chile.
– Robert Mondavi and Eduardo’s joint venture, Sena.
– Creation of Vinedo Chadwick. -
18.31 – 40.30
“Robert Parker never came to Chile.”
– Robert Parker and scoring of Chilean wine.
– Decision to gain recognition by staging a blind tasting.
– The Berlin tasting with Steven Spurrier and René Gabriel.
– Vinedo Chadwick receives 100 points.
– Setting up Wines of Chile in the UK.
– Taking the Master of Wine exam. -
40.31 – 01.04
“For me, fine wine is my passion and my dedication.”
– Developing the coastal terroirs.
– Launching Las Pizarras.
– Receiving Decanter Man of the Year award in 2018.
– Invitation to be the ambassador to the UK.
– Handing over to his daughters.
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