The impacts of the earthquake on the Chilean wine industry

The earthquake in Chile about ten days ago left a lot of damage. Last week some wine producers made statements of the impacts on their vineyards but the exact proportions of the damages are yet to be identified.

Gerardo Arteaga, president of the Chilean Wine Corporation confirmed to www.todovinos.cl last monday that the Chilean wine industry in the central part of the country suffered serious damage because of the earthquake. Vineyards and buildings were damaged and there are also risks that the upcoming harvest can be endangered in some cases.

He also told that the damages mainly consisted of broken barrels, broken vines and collapsed cellars. Among the areas that suffered the most impact are Curicó, Talca, Linares and Maule in the Sixth Region and Ñuble, Biobío, Concepción, Arauco and  Malleco i the Seventh Region. There is a risk that more regions are affected.

The biggest wine producer in Chile, Concha y Toro, informed in a statement that the production would take a break for at least a week, 'The area with the largest impact is the heartland of wine production,' said Concha y Toro. 'Our company, as well as the rest of the industry, have been heavily impacted by this catastrophe.'
Linnea Sjöstedt, at the Concha y Toro office in Stockholm says to Swedish wine site World of Wine News:
− The production has not been stopped, what is happening now is that there are investigations of the damages at Viña Maipo and Concha y Toro.

Regions further north were less affected. Eduardo Chadwick of Errazuriz in Aconcagua, was able to report everyone 'safe and well' and added that he was postponing the planned opening of his new Don Maximiano Icon Winery until November 'as a measure of solidarity to help our employees and our fellow countrymen out of this tragic situation.'

José Manuel Ortega, chairman of the O Fournier Group with operations in Maule.  said there had been no casualties but, 'The challenge now is enormous as we were about to start our harvest.'

At Curico north of Maule, Miguel Torres has a winery which suffered 'significant' damage. 'Around 300 casks smashed, one stainless steel vat with a capacity of 100,000 liters has been cracked, losing all the wine, thousands of bottles destroyed,'' the company said in a statement. 'But luckily the main structure of the buildings has withstood the quake.'

At Viña Neyen de Apalta in Colchagua, Patrick Valette said, 'We wanted to start the white harvest on Thursday but now it's impossible without electricity'

During the week Vinoschilenos.eu has been in touch with the wine producers Cono Sur and Santa Rita, and luckily they did not have damages to report.

Sources of information: www.decanter.com, www.emol.com, www.todovinos.cl, www.winespectator.com, www.wownews.se