With the aim of strengthening and enriching the offer of Chilean wines and promoting a better expression of our country's viticulture, the Minister of Agriculture of Chile, Esteban Valenzuela, together with the board of directors of Vinos de Chile headed by its president Alfonso Undurraga, announced this Monday the incorporation of new varieties and denominations of origin for Chilean wine to decree 464 that regulates this matter at a national level.

As explained by the authorities, the expansion of the universe of strains that can be used in the production of wines, whether as varietal wines or in blends, will directly contribute to enriching the offer of Chilean wines and to promoting a better expression of our production, through the cultivation of strains that best adapt to the production areas. This will also allow us to compete better with other countries that already use some of the strains that are incorporated today, such as the Marselan variety.

"The wine industry is the most important in the country from the point of view of Chile's projection. Chilean wine is our great cultural ambassador of the delights and diversity of our country and this is a very important day, because, on the one hand, we have an upturn in wine sales abroad and at the same time, we are together with the SAG, creating, on the one hand, new wine production areas and also new strains. The industry is innovating and improving more and more,” said Minister Valenzuela.

The Secretary of State also explained that the incorporation of the new Rapanui and Chiloé denominations of origin into decree 464 was considered admissible, where in both cases, it will promote greater wine development in those areas and improve the marketing of wines obtained in Rapanui and in the Chiloé archipelago, undoubtedly contributing to the recognition and appreciation of those territories and their culture.

For his part, Alfonso Undurraga, thanked the joint work that made possible this incorporation of new varieties and the admissibility of new Denominations of Origin to Decree 464 regarding wine zoning. “As a wine sector, as a country brand, we are promoting the development of new strains that were not previously recognized, and therefore could not be mentioned on labels before. The inclusion of new strains and the expansion of their universe, as varietals or blends, will directly contribute to enriching the offer of Chilean wines, with an important signal with ways to generate a better expression of our terroir, enabling greater competition with other countries.”

Along these lines, the national director of the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG), José Guajardo, said that “the modification of decree 464, which includes 51 new grape varieties to this catalogue that we have, is very important because it allows us to better market all our wines. There are more than 100 varieties that are added to our portfolio and that makes our productive sector more robust and powerful at a national level. We are very proud to have participated and contributed to the work that has been done both in Rapanui and in Chiloé.”

Finally, the national director of ODEPA, Andrea García, said that all this work “is part of the agro-export competitiveness agenda of the Ministry of Agriculture, this agenda that allows us to advance in competitiveness precisely in this sector, which is very characteristic of our country and that allows us to reach the most demanding destinations with a quality product.”

And as García explained, “in the first half of 2024 we are happy to see how we have managed to increase the volume of exported wine by 13% and this is very significant since we had had a decline in the last three years, which was due to a lower demand worldwide. These figures allow us to glimpse better opportunities for the sector (…) the opportunity to have wines from such exotic destinations as Chiloé or Easter Island opens up a path of competitiveness where we position ourselves as a country to offer increasingly challenging products to an increasingly demanding public.”