Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/12827
TasTInGs Errázuriz The THE 2010 “BERlIn TasTInGs” SHOWCASE CHILE’S ICONS Odyssey In by steven spurrier Eduardo Chadwick hears the results of this year’s Berlin Tasting in New York. January 2004, Eduardo Chadwick, fifth-generation owner of the company founded by his ancestor Don Maximiano Errázuriz in 1858 in Chile’s Aconcagua Valley, held a blind tasting at the then newly opened Ritz-Carlton in Berlin. The tasting saw his Viñedo Chadwick 2000 and Seña 2001 taking the two top places, followed by Ch. Lafite-Rothschild 2000 in third, with Ch. Margaux 2001 and Seña 2000 tying for fourth place. The event immediately became known as the “Berlin Tasting,” being compared in its results to the tasting I held in Paris in 1976. Fired up by his initial success, Eduardo Chadwick proceeded to stage similar tastings in cities all over the world. The format was always the same: a video introduction to Chile as “a viticultural paradise” and to the history of Chadwick’s family vineyards and wines, followed by a blind tasting attended by each city’s top wine merchants, sommeliers, restaurateurs, critics and wine writers. The benchmarks that were put up against Chadwick's portfolio were always the First Growths from Bordeaux’s Left Bank and the top Super-Tuscans, from the same or similar vintages. In effect, these were “single blind” tastings, for the names of the wines were pretty much known in advance, but not the order of serving. Tasters were asked to rank their 22 / the tasting panel / july 2010 PHOTO: LANA BORTOLOT