How Montes rewrote Chile’s wine story

Montes Sr. is widely celebrated for his innovative, risk-taking approach and spearheading Chile’s modern wine renaissance. Ruma Singh interviewed him on his recent visit to India

Aurelio Montes Sr. is the winemaker credited with setting Chile on the route to premiumisation. Historically perceived as a low-cost, bulk-wine producing country, the tide has turned for Chile. Many of its wines are receiving high scores from critics and have been listed on La Place de Bordeaux, the global marketplace that sells the world’s most prestigious wines.

Montes, who entered the wine industry in 1972 as a young agricultural engineering graduate from Chile’s Catholic University, set up his own winery in 1987 with three friends as partners. The winery was Viña Montes. Very soon, the horseback-riding, microligh tflying winemaker began commanding attention as he took steps that redefined Chilean winemaking.

While the world knew Chile primarily for its walletfriendly wines, Montes chose another, far riskier route. “Concha y Toro had been in the Chilean market for over 100 years. We knew we could never compete, so we decided to follow a different path of quality winemaking, over quantity,” he said.

Quickly developing a reputation for innovation, Montes imported new clones and disease-free grapevine cuttings. His premium wine portfolio was first launched with the Montes Alpha range. “We did everything differently — and this started a revolution in Chilean viticulture.”

Next, Montes brought in the Syrah grape in 1993, another first for Chile. This was followed by the launch of the Bordeaux-style Montes Alpha M in 1996, widely recognized as one of Chile’s first iconic wines: a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. After this came his second icon, the Montes Folly, Chile’s first premium Syrah.

Soon, more wines were added to the portfolio, including the Purple Angel, a premium 100% Carménère, followed by the first “super icon” wine, Taita, in 2007. More accolades followed as Montes received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Wine Challenge in 2020. The World’s Best Vineyards crowned Viñas Montes as the best in South America and the 4th best in the world in 2022.

However, Montes’ biggest impact on Chilean wine might be said to be his decision to focus on the hitherto neglected region of Apalta in Colchagua where, in 1995, he began planting vines high up on steep hillsides, unheard of in South America at the time. The sub-region soon developed a reputation as the birthplace for intense, bold, and structured reds, sending land prices skyrocketing.

The Montes winery in Apalta, was inaugurated in 2004 and is a magnet for wine lovers. Designed according to the laws of feng-shui, it boasts of a barrel room housing 800 barrels, where Gregorian chants are played to the wines. A stunning fine-dining restaurant, Fuegos de Apalta, features wood-fired cooking by celebrity chef Francis Mallmann.

Now famous for his risk-taking initiatives, Montes moved further south to the little-known Marchigüe, in western Colchagua Valley, where he planted Syrah vines in 2001. In 2018 he undertook his most high risk endeavour when he planted Pinot Noir, Albariño and other cool-climate grapes in Patagonia, in the southern Chilean archipelago of Chiloé — a land barren except for livestock. These pioneering efforts have come to define Montes’s mission today.

When I first met him in 2013 during his first visit to India, he was in the process of scoping out vineyard land near Machu Picchu in Peru. But this was not to be. “We were so close… we had the base, done all the research… but the Peruvians didn’t allow us because the original people there planted corn,” he told me. Montes stopped off in Bangalore during his lightning tour of Asia. I was meeting him after 12 years, and his zest for seeking new markets and understanding consumers was undimmed. After a tasting, we paused for a chat over coffee.

EXCERPTS FROM A FREE WHEELING INTERVIEW
Ruma Singh: What makes Montes unique today?
Aurelio Montes: We produce about seven million bottles for the whole world, and are considered a medium sized winery. We export 95% of our production and focus on premium wines. We are the only winery with five icon wines – the M, the Folly, Purple Angel, Taita, and the newest one, Muse.

Tell me about your latest icon, Muse
After a career spanning 35 years, I thought it was time to pay tribute to the women in my life — my mother, my wife, my daughters, and granddaughters — I have 19 grandchildren. Muse is a special tribute to them. So, we make only 6000 bottles of this special wine, in the Maipo Valley. Muse is 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, with small quantities of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.

The Montes Folly is 100% Syrah. Why Syrah? It is not commonly grown in Chile.
When I was young, I had travelled to Europe on work and became very impressed by the Syrah grown in the Northern Rhône. On my return to Chile, I realized we had the same landscape — the hills, the valley floor with the river flowing down the middle. In Chile, every valley has a river flowing down from the Andes. So I told my partners, “Syrah is a grape not present in Chile, but the Rhône’s Syrah is fantastic, and our landscape is exactly the same. I would like to bring Syrah to Chile.”

They told me to go for it. So, I went through the nightmare of legalities to bring in Syrah to Chile. We brought cuttings from a French nursery and I wanted to plant on the hillsides just as it is done in the Rhône. I think the valley floor is too fertile, too easy for vines. They are too happy and there is no struggle. The struggle is what produces quality grapes.

We succeeded, and Folly is the result. Even today, there is no other icon wine in Chile based on Syrah.

How did you think of the name, Folly?
While we were thinking of a name for this wine, we were visited by the British artist Ralph Steadman, known for his artwork for music albums and books and asked him to draw a label for the wine. We knew everything about the wine was crazy. It was a crazy idea to plant Syrah, crazy to plant it on hillsides, crazy to ask Steadman to make a label for us — sheer madness, total folly! Now Steadman paints a different label for every vintage for us, and these become collectors’ items. We produce about 4,000 bottles as Chilean Syrah is still a hard sell.

The Montes talisman is the angel and it is everywhere, even on the wine labels, but Montes Folly is the only wine that features the angel in a different avatar as a drunken angel! Please explain.
It was Steadman’s idea. He said, “I have never come across a New World Syrah as good as this one. If you want an angel for this, I’ll paint one, but the angel will be drunk on this wonderful wine.” We agreed and Steadman’s drunken angel features on every back label of Folly — the front features his artwork.

Which of your icon wines is closest to your heart?
Of course, the Muse has its own story, and it is one of my favourites. But there is another icon close to my heart. While I was at Catholic University in Santiago, my teachers were French from Bordeaux. So, you can say I was a Bordeaux influenced winemaker from the start. When I developed the Montes Alpha M, I told my partners that I wanted to create a wine comparable to Bordeaux. The M is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 5% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot — a classic Bordeaux blend.

It was very well received, but I wanted more validation. So, we conducted a blind tasting in California in 2006, with 16 top sommeliers. Montes M 2004 competed against the world’s best — Lafite Rothschild, Sassicaia, Ornellaia, Haut Brion, Opus One. At the end, Lafite won. The result was very well deserved, but Montes M came second. Honestly speaking, if I had come first no one would have believed the blind tasting was not rigged! So I preferred to come second and be validated. I do have a very special feeling for the M. It is so elegant, and even after 10 years it is amazing. You might say my favourite son is the M.

Montes and sustainability. How easy is it in Chile to be sustainable? Has climate change affected your vineyards?
Being sustainable is easy when you are committed to the cause. Chile is a very green country, easy to practise regenerative viticulture as we do, or organic. Energy and water is easy to save. Our third important resource is our people. People are proud of their association with Montes because of what we stand for. We are proud of our commitment to sustainability.

Yes, we can see the climate changing. We have been studying how to save water, improve the quality of our soil, and impart more life to it. I believe that Chile is blessed with its geography — we have the ocean, the Andes mountains, natural barriers. And with the snow melting from there, our rivers have water. But we must think of the future.

Being aware of the increasing scarcity of water, we began vineyard tests in 2010, which has resulted in 65% reduction in water usage, equivalent to the average annual consumption of 20,000 people.

What brings you to India?
I am obsessed with the idea of India.

In the 12 years I have visited India, I have seen growth. India is a developing country with a big future and a burgeoning middle class. It is a country where the wine consumption has been growing 6% or 7% for the last 10 years. I am planning to devote time to India from now on — spending time with the Indian wine community and meeting people.

The growth and development of the Indian economy is remarkable. Ten years ago, there were hardly any restaurants serving wine: that has changed now. Of course, if there is a new trade agreement and taxes are reduced, wines will become more affordable, and growth will be faster.