The 2022 Harvest in Chile: A Cool, Dry Year

BY JOAQUÍN HIDALGO | JUNE 08, 2022

It’s difficult to summarize a vintage in a country where coastal and mountain valleys experience very different conditions, but the numbers show that 2022 in Chile was defined by two stand out phenomena: a lack of water and associated lack of relative humidity, as well as low temperatures.

This makes it unusual, as the two rarely coincide. Rafael Urrejola at Viña Undurraga puts it well: “for most oenologists, myself included, this was a year that behaved like a hot one in terms of ripeness and yet the temperatures tell a different story.” Most agree. In the context of a drought that has been going on for 13 years now and a 2021 winter with some of the lowest rainfalls ever recorded from Maule to the north, the lack of water and low humidity accelerated ripening processes in the same way as one sees in hot years.

Pretty much everyone agrees: the 2022 harvest in Chile was an invigorating one for both oenologists and viticulturists. Some are enthused by the “charming character” of their wines, others by their “freshness and fruitiness”, while others highlight their “balanced concentration.” Whatever their personal opinion as to the outcome, most who made wine in Chile this year seem happy.

Vines at Viña Laberinto on the shore of Lake Colbún in Maule Andes last February. Here, the rainy spring allowed for even budding.   

Central Valley and Maipo

In general, Chile has seen a drop in yields due to the lack of water, with some plants ripening early before getting slowed down by the cool weather. Low temperatures in December and January were followed in February with peaks that continued into March, bringing some harvests forward. Eduardo Jordán, who runs the technical team at Viña Torres, says: “I see two or three harvests in one: the first ended in the third week of March, the second runs to the rain in the second half of April and the third in the period that followed.”

It’s an interesting description echoed by other producers, including Gonzalo Castro at Baron Philippe de Rothschild: “up until the third week of March, when we had several days with highs of 33ºC, the year had been very cool. Everything ripened all at once.” These conditions were seen in the Central Valley, from Maipo to Maule. The grapes harvested early present a fresh, fruity profile, typical of a cool year with low temperatures. “What happened next, which I’d never seen before,” says Viviana Navarrete at Viña Leyda, “is that the entire harvest was squeezed because all the varieties ripened at the same time: the coastal whites at the same time as the reds of the Central Valley.” So, the major problem was logistics: grapes that would ordinarily be processed across two months had to be fit into one. And you could see the difference inside the wineries.  

Aurelio Montes Jr. at Viña Montes offers a colorful metaphor: “It was like an accordion squashed against a wall; the ripening happened very quickly. Some of the whites were scorched by the sun because of the high luminosity and a 20% drop in output on the coast. But in the red areas, it was an exceptional year. With gradual sugar build-up, low pH, heightened acidity and polished tannins.” If there’s one thing that all the technicians agree on, it’s that 2022 was a year of low pHs in every variety; since the grapes were able to preserve their acidity in cool temperatures. Of course, in a year like that, ripening ought to have been slow, but the lack of water and resulting drop in yields hurried things along.

“We all thought it would be a harvest with high yields,” says Héctor Rojas at Viña Tabalí, “because the plants were looking good with healthy bunches. To the naked eye there isn’t much difference between a 100 and 120 grams bunch, but that 20% difference comes out on the scales.” This would appear to be the determining factor for several of the elements that made 2022 so unusual. The drop in yields can mostly be attributed to the lack of water; although, frosts did hit the south and one or two of the coastal vineyards in Maule. The lack of water also changed the ratio between skin and must, resulting in oenologists talking about “concentrated” wines, giving both whites and reds a distinctive character this year. The low relative humidity due to the dry year was also a significant factor, especially in Maipo. Germán Lyon at Viña Pérez Cruz puts it plainly: “with low relative humidity this summer, about 20%, we saw that plants evapotranspirated as much as they would in a warm year but with cool temperatures, and I think that’s the key to explaining the accelerated ripening, as well as the preservation of acidity and concentration we’re seeing.”

So, several factors played a role in 2022, especially in the Central Valley where ¾ of Chile’s vineyards are located, to produce a quality-focused vintage with fresh, red fruit profiles up until March and the beginning of April. “First of all, this will be a year for Cabernet Sauvignon,” says Alejandro Wedeler from Santa Carolina. “A great year for the reds,” sums up Gabriel Mustakis at VSPT.