About the Need to Move Towards a DO's System on Chilean Wine

Abstract

The present essay discusses the current legal body of Decree 464 in Law 18.455 "Viticultural Zoning and Appellations of Origin" for Chilean wine. A legislation that is lacking in DO protection and recognition, being rather a set of IG without addressing other fundamental aspects to all type of DO such as cultural heritage and the identification of an active and key role of a regulatory board. While the country does not have a real DO system for wines, the confusion will continue between a IG and DO, as currently happens in cases where commonly expressions are used on labels like "Colchagua Valley" or "Casablanca Valley", in which beyond the origin of the grapes, says nothing about the purity of the product or its regulation, much less about the wine's cultural heritage.