The expansion of the wine industry into Chile and other parts of South America did not really begin until the 20th century.

Since Chile and most of South American were under Spanish colonial rule until the 1800s, little was done to promote their wine industry. Just as the missions in California produced sacramental wine, Chilean vineyards also grew up around the same principle.

After South America gained its independence from Spain, most wine makers were content to stick with their traditional wines until prosperous Chileans started bringing back foreign wines from their travels abroad.

Chilean wines are becoming highly favoured in today's wine market. Most of these wines are fairly inexpensive, but this may change in the next few years.

The wines of Chile and South America in general, tend to be ripe and fruity in flavour, much like their Californian counterparts. Clearly these wines benefited from both Spanish and French prototypes brought to them by the European explorers and settlers who developed South America.