“Chile is a country like a piece of spaghetti,” Marcelo Papa said, gesturing at the geography –Andes on one side, Pacific on the other, with the climate changing dramatically over just a few kilometers of distance. Deserts, glaciers, ocean and mountains all in one country, all within reach for winemakers willing to go looking for the right microclimate. It’s the kind of diversity most wine regions would kill for, and one Papa has spent three decades trying to get wine drinkers outside of Chile to notice.
If you ask most casual wine drinkers what Chile does best, you’ll probably hear “good value wines.” That’s true, but it’s only half the story. There’s an evolving premium wine market in Chile, too, one where remarkable value still holds up even at the top end.
I met Marcelo Papa over a flight of three wines when he was in the Vail Valley this summer, and by the second pour I’d stopped taking notes on price point and started taking notes on how wrong most people’s idea of Chilean wine actually is.
Papa is the technical director of Concha y Toro, overseeing quality across the company’s full portfolio of brands and cellars. He is also the winemaker behind Viña Amelia, one of Concha y Toro’s small, new subsidiary’s producing premium single-vineyard chardonnay and pinot noir in the Límarí Valley, where persistent cloud cover lends the wine a pleasing austerity. A style Papa compares to Burgundy’s Meursault or Chassagne-Montrachet.
Papa’s day job is a big one. Concha y Toro is the leading wine exporter in Latin America and one of the most recognized wine companies in the world, with more than 140 years of history and a presence in over 130 countries. The company produces upward of 30 million cases a year across Chile, Argentina and California, and its best-known label, Casillero del Diablo, is likely the most familiar Chilean wine on shelves in the United States. And with Orlando Bloom as its new global spokesperson you may see them even more…
Since 2017 Concha y Toro has pursued a premiumization strategy designed to strengthen its higher-value portfolio and ensure sustainable profitability. As a result of this approach, 57% of the company’s wine sales revenue currently comes from its premium and higher-end segments. These premium brands within its portfolio include Don Melchor — the first ultra-premium wine to come out of the Chilean industry, Trivento in Mendoza, Argentina, and Bonterra Organic Estates (formerly Fetzer Vineyards) in California. Viña Amelia sits at the premium end of the portfolio as well.
The company has helped to lead the evolving premium wine market in Chile, which still offers remarkable value even at the top end.
The Wines: Cool Climate, Low Intervention
Viña Amelia is produced in Limarí, which sits close to the coast with no mountain range to block Pacific influence. This means there is a constant cool breeze, low temperatures and red clay-over-limestone soils – conditions Papa compares favorably to what you’d want for serious chardonnay and pinot noir. Amelia’s vineyard, planted about 20 years ago and nicknamed Quebrada Seca (“Dry Creek”), has picked up notable scores and recognition over the years, Papa said. Specially, with 93 points, the 2023 Amelia became the best chardonnay in Chile according to Wine Spectator. The same vintage claimed the top spot as White Wine of the Year in the 2025 Chile Report by the renowned British Master of Wine, Tim Atkin.
Papa poured the award-winning Amelia chardonnay for me to sample. No malolactic fermentation, no acid correction, just 13.5% alcohol and a pH so tight it borders on austere. It’s also one of the best white wines I’ve had this summer. The accolades and awards are well deserved, and for a bottle around $50 it’s one most can enjoy.
The Amelia chardonnay skips malolactic fermentation entirely – a deliberate choice to preserve natural acidity rather than correct for it later. “I prefer to get this wine with the natural balance,” Papa said. The result is lean and mineral rather than the buttery, tropical style some drinkers expect from chardonnay: dry, saline, high-tension, fermented 100% in French oak barrels with only about 10% new wood.
The Amelia pinot noir leans into cherry rather than the raspberry or strawberry notes Papa associates with warmer-climate versions, fermented with roughly 50% whole clusters for added texture and structure – what he described as a lighter-bodied red that still has something to say.
We also tasted Concha y Toro’s carmenère, a grape genetically related to cabernet franc that spent years mistaken for merlot in Chilean vineyards before it was correctly identified. It needs a notably long growing season – Papa put it at 150 to 160 days from flowering to harvest – which is why it’s grown in the Peumo area of the Rapel Valley, near Apalta, where mild end-of-summer temperatures let the fruit hang without frost risk. Expect green pepper notes, plum, and soft, well-integrated tannins.
Sustainability, in Practical Terms
Concha y Toro is a certified B Corp, meaning its sustainability claims are independently audited rather than self-reported – a distinction Papa was clear to draw out. In practice, that shows up in several places: precision irrigation to manage Chile’s limited water supply (Papa estimated water use per liter of wine produced is competitive with international norms), tilling between vine rows so winter rain soaks into the soil instead of running off, conservation of forested hillside around the company’s vineyard holdings, solar power at the wineries, and a push to shave grams off bottle glass to cut shipping weight and emissions.
One detail that stood out: for the UK market, Concha y Toro ships wine in bulk (in large flexitank containers) and bottles it locally, which Papa said cuts the number of shipping containers needed by three to four times compared to shipping pre-bottled wine. It’s not yet done for the U.S. market, where distribution is far more geographically spread out. This does not include Concha y Toro ultra-premium wines as they are still shipped in individual bottles.
Why Any of This Matters
Papa’s pitch, and mine to readers, is the same: Chile’s reputation as a source of cheap, reliable wine isn’t wrong, exactly – it’s just incomplete. Producers like Concha y Toro have spent the last two decades mapping the country’s climate diversity and matching specific grapes to specific microclimates with a level of precision that rivals Napa Valley and Bordeaux, at a fraction of the price. Amelia’s bottles retail in the $50–60 range – serious wine, without the serious markup.
Finding Quality Chilean Wines
As for other Chilean wines to try if you can’t find Concha y Toro and its premium brands, look for wines from Chile that specify a D.O. on the label. This is its Denominación de Origen (Denomination of Origin) – Chile’s official system for designating where a wine’s grapes were grown, similar to France’s AOC, Italy’s DOC/G and United States AVA.
Elaine Schoch is an award-winning travel writer, wine judge, American Wine Specialist and certified by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET III). At Carpe Travel she shares wine travel destination guides for ALL WINE LOVERS – from novices to experienced pros – to help them plan their wine adventures, arming them with insider tips, must-visit spots, and things to see and do beyond the vines.