It’s a sad truth that good French wines have got more expensive in the past twenty years. I don’t mean in line with inflation, but in real terms. Twenty years ago I could afford to drink a good Burgundy or a Cru Bourgeois from the Bordeaux regularly, today I can’t. The reason for this is straightforward enough; the market for good French wines has expanded hugely in America and Japan and that increased demand has pushed the prices relentlessly upwards. As the prices for French wines escalated a gap in the Irish market opened up. Twelve years ago French wines accounted for 80% of all sales, today the rest of the world’s wines are rapidly approaching that figure. There are wine lists in restaurants today that list no French wines at all.

If, like me, you enjoyed good wines, when good French wines had become prohibitively expensive there was only one strategy: buy wines from the New World. Australian and New Zealand wines became widely available, as South Africa opened up their wines arrived here and then came the South American invasion from Chile and Argentina.

Vines were first introduced to Argentina and Chile by Spanish missionaries in the sixteenth century – legend has it that the first vintage was in 1551. Until the middle of the nineteenth century Chilean wine production was based more on quantity than quality, but then it was understood that the climate was perfect for the production of quality wines. There was a dip in the middle of the twentieth century as successive governments tried to curtail alcoholism by dispossessing vineyard owners and curtailing the use of arable land, but by 1974 production of quality wine was on the increase again. A peculiarity of Chilean vineyards is that the absence of phylloxera means that the vines are not grafted onto American root stocks.

Chilean wines are now in virtually every off-license and supermarket and Concha y Toro are one of the market leaders. They offer a big range catering for budget buys right through to premium wines. Their middle range of wines comes with the ‘Casillero del Diablo’ label and like all the wines from Concha y Toro they’re varietals – each wine being made from solely one grape variety. There are seven altogether: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Malbec, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. These are all partially oaked. A varying percentage of the vintage, depending on the variety, is aged in American oak barrels while the rest is stored in stainless steel vats until bottling some six to nine months later.

There’s something comforting about drinking varietals: it doesn’t take long to begin to recognise the individual tastes and colours of each grape. This is very much a new marketing phenomenon; before this was common, wines were marketed more by their region and regional styles. There can be few wine drinkers today who don’t know the taste of Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay grapes, which were the first to marketed this way and it’s a trend that seems set to continue.

Pick of the Week.

Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon 1998

Bright red in colour and medium-bodied, this is a wine with a lot of fruit undertones like cherries and plums, and just a hint of vanilla. It’s well balanced and like a good wine should, it has a lingering aftertaste. Available in supermarkets and off-licenses at around £7.50.