Sweet Vino High-quality

Budget-conscious oenophiles have long admired Chile's moderately priced, eminently drinkable wines. Despite their relatively unsophisticated technology, Chilean vintners have consistently produced supple reds that are notable for fruit and balance, as well as soft but less distinctive whites. The Wine Spectator, the leading American journal of wines and spirits, last year gave an impressive 88 (on a scale of 100) and a best-buy rating to Vina Los Vascos' 1984 Cabernet Sauvignon, which sells in the U.S. for a mere $5. Other bargain-priced Chilean wines, including Concha y Toro and St. Morillon, have also scored well in U.S. tastings.

With such gung-ho scouting reports, it was only a matter of time before the big leaguers moved in. After two years of negotiations, Les Domaines des Barons de Rothschild, the firm that manages France's prestigious Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, has purchased a half interest in Los Vascos, a 500-acre vineyard located some 90 miles southwest of Santiago. French experts are already working on this year's vintage, and Christophe Salin, deputy managing director of Les Domaines, promises that "1989, which is currently being harvested, should be better yet."

Details of the deal were not disclosed, but it was probably a bargain by French standards: prime vineyards in Chile sell for $4,000 to $6,000 an acre, compared with as much as $400,000 in France's Bordeaux region. The country has a host of grape-hospitable regions whose weather remains remarkably stable from year to year. Chilean grapevines, of mostly transplanted French and some German stock, are unscathed by the Phylloxera that devastated Californian and European vines in the 19th century. With an annual output of some 70 million gal., Chile ranks 13th among the world's wine producers. Los Vascos, with a yearly capacity of 423,000 gal., is unusual among the country's vineyards in that most of its wines are exported to the U.S., Canada, England, Denmark and, yes, France.