Great strides have been made in the wines of South America, most notably from Chile and Argentina, where Calmont sources some tremendous wines.  Unlike the European nations who historically have imported only the top end of the quality spectrum from Chile and Argentina, Americans have typically exploited the bottom rung of the ladder over years.  Ask a European what they think of South American wine and they consider them to be some of the best of the best.  It is this part of the market Calmont has been building on, from our high quality, value-priced brands to the pinnacle of quality as offered by the famous bodegas of Nicolas Catena, Achaval-Ferrar, Montes and others.
    Many people divide the world of wine into Old and New, a distinction based on time: the Old World has been making fine wine a lot longer than the New. For example, countries such as France, Spain and Italy are part of the Old World, whereas Australia, The United States and Chile are part of the New World.
    But perhaps the newest of the New is Chile. While Chilean winemaking may have a long history – by 1550, Spanish missionaries and conquistadors had planted wine grapes there – it wasn’t until well into the 1980s that Chile made much that a non-Chilean might drink.
    Until just a few years ago, Chileans’ taste in wine was rather odd compared to that of most of the world. They preferred their wines to be thin, slightly oxidized and inexpensive, much like the Spanish wines of old.
    Such wines didn’t,  and don’t, sell beyond Chile’s borders. Neither, lately, did Chile’s image – a country marred by political strife and thickets of bureaucracy.  That all changed during the past 20 years – and so did Chilean winemaking.
    As soon as the world recognized Chile as a stable trading partner, enormous amounts of foreign capital (mostly from France and the United States) flowed into Chile’s vineyards. It was an investor’s no- brainer: Chile is home to one of the most hospitable places on the globe for grapes.
    Chile is topographically unique. This amazingly lengthy country has the world’s driest desert (the Atacama) at its head, the Patagonian lake country at its feet and the Pacific Ocean and Andes Mountains to either side.
    For a winemaker, such geographic isolation is ideal. Chile and Argentina are the only two countries in the world that have not been visited by the devastating vine louse phylloxera. Likewise, Chile need not spray for vineyard pests (there aren’t many).
    Other plusses: Chile has no lack of irrigation water (due to Andean snowmelt), can boast an average of 310 sunny days a year and easily earns that favored sobriquet for wine labels – an abundance of warm days and cool nights.
    For years, Argentina has ranked as the fifth largest wine producer on the globe (after the headlining trio of France, Italy and Spain, and after the United States).  Most of Argentina’s vineyards grow grapes on an axis running north-south along the Andes mountains in the far west of the country. The salient characteristics of grape growing and winemaking in those vineyards are these: abundant sunshine (some 320 days a year), high-altitude (cool nighttime temperatures) and abundant water from the melting snows of the Andes.
    Argentina possesses the vineyard lands, soil, climate and skill to make good wine and, because its labor costs are low, the country delivers on waves of well- made wine priced lower than most countries exports.  The proof of this is how Argentina can successfully manage the wine grapes native to or predominant in other countries, grapes such as Chardonnay, Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.  These international varieties also exit Argentina in wines that are well-structured, delicious, packed with fruit and—above all—well-priced.
    Argentina also shines with lesser-known wine grape varieties such as Malbec and Torrontes. In truth, Malbec from Argentina is unequalled elsewhere in the world, and since its demised from phylloxera in Bordeaux, and subsequent omission from replanting, in our opinions, Bordeaux is remiss with out it.