Sergio Hormazábal: “We need to create the desire to have Chilean wines at the table”

There were some old bottles of wine covered in cobwebs in the basement of Sergio Hormazábals grandmother’s house. They had belonged to his grandfather, who had died before he was born. “I was always intrigued by them,” admits the Viña Ventisquero winemaker and president of the Chilean Association of Winemakers (Asociación de Ingenieros Agrónomos Enólogos de Chile).

The ever-expanding frontiers of the Chilean wine map

Creative winemakers and bold viticulturists who are planting vines in previously unexplored areas are changing the image of Chilean wines, so they are increasingly being seen as daring and innovative.

Tips for storing wine at home

Do you enjoy having a quiet glass of wine at home or opening a good bottle of wine at dinner? Like most wine lovers, we imagine you do.

So it is quite likely that you don’t always finish the bottle in one sitting and there is still some wine left over, which, if it is not stored properly, will lose the characteristic flavour that you liked so much.

The aesthetics of wine label design: the inter-mingling of art and marketing

The wine label: a little piece of paper that can be of great use if done well. Just as we discussed in the previous post, the wine label provides the consumer with basic information on the content of his/her wineglass, including the place of origin, the producer and the grape variety.

Yet the wine label is not just a source of information. It makes the bottle look just as good as the wine tastes! In fact, for quite some time now wine labels have been considered as an art form that symbolizes and conveys the cultural values of the place where the wine was produced.

Wine lovers celebrate friendship at a wine tasting

They contribute something to your life which would otherwise be lacking, achieving a perfect mix. What would life be like without your friends? In Chile we celebrated Friendship Day on Friday, October 7 and Viña Ventisquero decided to celebrate it with wine lovers.

In an entertaining contest on its Twitter and Facebook accounts, the Chilean winery asked readers with which of their friends they make a good combination and why. Six winners were selected from among the most original answers. They and their best friends were invited to a fun wine tasting led by Viña Ventisquero’s winemaker Alejandro Galaz.

Understanding wine labels

“Knowledge is power” wrote English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his work of 1658, De Homine. And this phrase, known and used all over the world, also applies to wine.

Wine comes in hundreds of different varieties and there is a great deal of information available to help us choose one. However it is not always that easy.