Viña Errázuriz’s KAI was Chosen for Top Honours at the New Berlin Tasting Edition in New York
The elegant Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York, with its fantastic view over the Central Park, was the perfect setting for this year’s version of the now-legendary Berlin Tasting. On May 10th of 2010, seventy of the world’s most renowned wine journalists, writers and buyers, met for the most recent version of this event. Read More >
This blind tasting event was originally held in Berlin in 2004, with two Chilean wines—Viñedo Chadwick 2000 and Seña 2001—being chosen atop over two standout wines, French Grand Crus and Italian Super Tuscans.
This year’s tasting began with a presentation by Eduardo Chadwick, in which he compared the world’s primary winegrowing regions, including Bordeaux, Tuscany, Napa and Chile.
The Berlin Tasting – New York then began, with tasters weighing Chile’s wines alongside top global wines such as France’s Chateau Lafite and Haut Brion, Italy’s Sassicaia, and Napa, California’s Opus One and Stag’s Leap, all belonging to the 2006 vintage.
The outcome was a big surprise, with Errázuriz’s KAI chosen for top honours, the best wine of the tasting, which is not only an enormous success for Chile, but also for the country’s unique, emblematic variety, Carmenere. Robert Parker had already scored KAI 2006 with 96 points, reaffirming this variety’s top quality potential.
The Carmenere variety is originally from Bordeaux and was thought to be lost forever due to the philloxera plague that hit Europe the last century, but was rediscovered growing in Chile only a few years ago.
The tasting proved once again that Chile is capable of offering world-class wines based on Carmenere that can take their place alongside the best on the globe.
Margot Adler, Michael Apstein, Eric Arnold, Christines Barr, Sandy Block MW, Roger Bohmrich, Bariness Sheri De Borchgrave, Lana Bortolot, Colleen Caron, Camille Castillo, Denic Catalan, Ed Chan, Amy Chen, Freddy Cicerchia, Tyler Colman, Elmer Contreras, Maggie Dedrick, Fred Dexheimer, Patrick Driscoll, Thomas Farley, Francine Francini, Odila Galer-Noel, Emilei Garvey, Leslie Gevirtz, Howard Goldberg, Anjoleena Griffin-Holst, Douglas Harrington, Liam Harvey, Peter Holt, David Hunter, Alex Joerger, Stephanie Johnson, Alexis Kahn, Lauren Kelleher, Jean Luc Le Du, David Lombardo, Justin Lorenz, Elin Mccoy, Ryan Mills-Knapp, Steve Morrison, Costas Mouzouras, Thomas Murray, Ramon Narvaez, Daniel Posner, Mike Potashnik, Billy Rattner, Josh Raynolds, Alicia Rodriguez, Terry Rogers, Jonathan Ross, Len Rothenberg, Patricia Savoie, Nat Saywell, Carlos Scandaris-Cungu, Michael Schachner, Amanda Schark, John Sellai, Martin Sinkoff, Matt Stinton, Adam Strum, George Taber, Lori Tieszen, Larry Tse, Joe Vita, Brian Zipin, Chris Zoski.
The Judgment of Berlin was another shocker and expanded the world of wine again. Today wine consumers are truly international and know that a few of the best producers in areas such as Chile, California, and Italy make truly world quality wines.
…What I remember most clearly about the morning is how a disparate group of wine professionals, the people with whom I was tasting, ultimately felt about the Chilean wines… Overall, they liked the Chilean wines best, and a Carmenere (KAI) was the consensus
favourite. Interesting, to say the least.
Chadwick can be seen as a remarkable ambassador both for his company and country, especially since the wine that triumphed in the US was from Chile’s own Carmenere, a grape that just a decade ago was mistaken for Merlot
These tastings definitely have had an impact on how many influential members of the American wine trade view Chile today. So I see them as invaluable to promoting Chile’s well- deserved image as a source for world-class wine that can sit alongside the best that the rest of the world has to offer.
I don’t think he was expecting at all to do as well as he did, but I think having done it, it was an educational experience further than he had planned, because instead of just educating the 40 or 50 people in the room, he educated the entire world.
When Eduardo and I first discussed the concept of this blind tasting format, I told him to brace himself for disappointment, especially given the popularity of Bordeaux reds in this part of the world. I was completely wrong in my warning and I am truly surprised by the results…
Until that point only Eduardo knew what he had in his hands. Today the whole world knows… By reaching indisputable recognition in the world wine scene, Eduardo Chadwick’s wines have clearly demonstrated Chile’s tremendous vitivinicultural potential and have helped Chilean wines earn greater space and credibility in the international market.
These tastings definitely have had an impact on how many influential members of the American wine trade view Chile today. So I see them as invaluable to promoting Chile’s well- deserved image as a source for world-class wine that can sit alongside the best that the rest of the world has to offer.
One enterprising Chilean wine producer, Eduardo Chadwick of Viña Errázuriz, has managed to organise a similar evolutionary milestone for the Chilean wine industry—or at least of his own wines… at what will doubtless come to be known in the history of Chilean wine as the “Berlin Tasting”