Best Chilean wines to try in 2024, taste tested

Characterised by well-priced, excellent-quality bottles compared to other, more famous, wine-making countries, Chile is arguably South America’s best-kept secret.

But why? After all, it’s been planting and producing grapes since the 16th century and is home to every variety we know and love, from white to red.

Firstly, Chile is relatively isolated from the rest of the world – surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and Andes Mountains – while it received a bad reputation in the early days thanks to exporting its cheapest, sweetest wines. Secondly, many of its grapes were banned in the 17th century under Spanish rule with the powers that be eventually ordering its vineyards to be burnt to the ground.

Luckily, Chilean producers denied such demands and their vineyards flourished with