The 2021 Harvest in Chile: The Year That Summer Was Gatecrashed by Winter

BY JOAQUÍN HIDALGO | AUGUST 05, 2021

The 2021 season will be remembered in Chile for an unusually cool and rainy summer. The records from oenologists and winegrowers show that overall, January and February were the driest and most stable of the year. But between January 28 and 31, in the central Chile region running from Araucanía to Valparaíso, the Zonal Atmospheric River (ZAR) paid a visit. In the 111 years that the weather station at the Quinta Agronómica in Santiago has been keeping records, ZAR has only appeared five times. René Garreaud, from the Geophysics Department at the University of Chile and Assistant Director of the Center of Climate Science and Resilience, explained the event very well in an academic paper, “Winter rains in the middle of summer?” The phenomenon is a subtropical air current that begins in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It hits the central valley full on with rainfall between 40 and 120mm. The aptly named “river” carries an enormous amount of water on a tight band of currents that travel around the globe. Fortunately, the weather service predicted the storm, so producers waited anxiously, fearing the effects of the increased potential for fungal diseases among varieties that ripen well in advance, especially Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and, in some regions, Syrah, as well as the higher-yielding vineyards.   

What producers didn’t expect was that after the rains, temperatures would remain low and humidity high. “After the storm, thermometers plunged,” said Héctor Rojas at Viña Tabalí. For 90% of the Chilean area under vine, it was like being within the shade of an eclipse. The harvest ended up staying universally cool, with some areas on the coast experiencing the coldest annual temperatures in two decades. Maipo, Aconcagua, Cachapoal and Colchagua saw average temperatures between 8% and 15% below normal. Meanwhile, the 80% relative humidity exacerbated levels of botrytis to varying degrees, depending on the soils and conditions in each region. “We applied six treatments with organic products at different times, in addition to bringing in fans to dry the vines between January and February,” said Eduardo Jordán, who heads the team at Miguel Torres. “In a normal year, we’d only do one. But we were able to take good care of the varieties used for the high-quality wines,” he said with relief.   

The immediate result of the rains was a widespread, and justified, panic attack. Concerns were especially high for non-Bordeaux varieties and high-yielding vines. “Oh, the botrytis left its mark,” said Marcelo Papa, head of the technical team at Concha y Toro. “Bordeaux varieties destined for quality wines got through it well, enduring a cool to cold February but ripening slowly and steadily in March under optimum conditions: no blockages and slow sugar accumulation with low pH and alcohol, which is unusual for Chile.” 

In the dry farmed areas, ripening occurred slowly and consistently. The rain was considered “like a cold beer on a hot day,” in the words of Andrés Sánchez, the oenologist at Gillmore Wines in the Maule region. There, the plants not only got enough water in the soil, but also ripened steadily.

To sum up, for some regions, the 2021 season in Chile had its rough patches, while for others it was smooth as silk.   

Most of the Cabernet Sauvignon in Maipo got through the January storms unscathed and, thanks to the cool February, it continued to ripen very gradually and evenly. This is one of Concha y Toro's many vineyards. 

Winter and Spring

The 2020-2021 growing season enjoyed a promising winter with rainfall in line with historic averages - an improvement on the relative drought of previous years. June 2020 was rainy, and while the winter wasn’t especially cold, almost every area got the low temperatures it needed. Yields were expected to be low because of warm temperatures after the harvest of 2020 in the coastal areas and frosts between October 2 and 5 during budding in Curicó and the Andes. However, with humid soils and a dry, cool spring, the plants recovered and thrived through December in steady conditions. Given the lack of heat waves, by January the season was shaping up wonderfully - until ZAR struck to send things out of kilter in many regions.

Limarí & the North

Here, the year was calado (“perfect”), as they say in Chile. The rain didn’t make it up this far. The vineyards located near the coast enjoyed a cycle that was close to ideal. Héctor Rojas, the agricultural engineer at Viña Tabalí, whose operations are based in the area, said, “We had a slightly cooler year. Our records show that it was very similar to 2018.” The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir performed especially well.

Marcelo Retamal, the head of Viñedo Alcohuaz, reported that “it was an exceptional year for Elqui. We had snow in winter and achieved the ideal yield of a kilo per plant, with the Syrah being especially of good quality.”   

In Apalta, near the top of the hill, this Syrah from Casa Lapostolle experienced difficult ripening throughout February but in lower areas with denser soils, the variety’s struggles were far more severe.

Aconcagua & Costa

In the Andean valleys around San Felipe and Los Andes, the storm only just brushed the area and the extra rainfall of 20mm didn’t make much difference. “The cooler summer gave us skinnier, more refined wines similar to the 2016s,” said Francisco Baettig at Viña Errázuriz.

In the coastal valleys of Casablanca, San Antonio and Leyda, instead, the ZAR hit hard. Diego Rivera, the oenologist at Garcés Silva, explained that “49mm fell in the region in one day, when the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were at 16º Brix. There was a lot of skin splitting and botrytis was widespread across the region,” he said sorrowfully. To make things worse, the sun didn’t come back until March, with high relative humidity of around 84%.