Chile keeps 11.5% wine. It just opened an 8.5% lane
The Kast government signed a decree for a separate wine category from 8.5% alcohol. Classic Chilean wine still starts at 11.5%. The Comptroller is still reviewing the text.
A wine law is a door, not a recipe.
On 26 August UPI reported that Chile’s government under President José Antonio Kast had signed a decree for a new, separate wine category. The floor is 8.5% actual alcohol. The Comptroller General is still reviewing the text, so it is not fully in force yet.
Classic Chilean wine does not move. That category still starts at 11.5%. The new lane is extra, aligned with OIV rules. It is not a cut to the old bottle.
Agriculture Minister Jaime Campos put it as a chance to meet drinkers who want less alcohol,.
Pablo Cañón at Universidad Mayor pointed at younger drinkers, calories and wellbeing. Global wine volume in 2025 was about 5.5 billion gallons, 14% below 2018. A lunch glass, an aperitif, a weekday pour around 9% is a different occasion from a 14% dinner wine.
Nicolás Román at Universidad de los Andes said millennials are the health-and-moderation cohort. Alfonso Undurraga, speaking for Wines of Chile to El Mercurio, was blunter: Chilean wine could not compete in that growing segment because the law had no slot for it.
The fruit for this lane is not a trick in the cellar. Coastal and southern sites, earlier picks, keep the acidity.
Chile is still the world’s fourth-largest wine exporter, about 188 million gallons in 2025. The 11.5% wine stays. The 8.5% wine is a new door.
Mini-concept: a category is a legal lane, not a lower bar for the same wine.
A flavoured can is already light. This is a legal slot for real wine at lunch strength.
Remember: 8.5% is a new lane. Classic Chilean wine still starts at 11.5%.
Source: UPI