If you want American buyers and bartenders to pour your spirit, you put it in their glass first. That’s the playbook ProChile—Chile’s export promotion agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs—ran in New York City on October 20, gathering journalists, influencers and industry professionals for an up-close exploration of Chile’s food and beverage culture.
The format was deliberate: a curated Chilean lunch followed by a wine and pisco masterclass. Attendees moved from heritage grape varieties and the distinctive terroir of Chile’s Itata Valley to the character and traditions of Chilean pisco, the country’s signature grape-based spirit—meeting the people and stories behind the products along the way.
A Chilean Table, Built by a Michelin-Trained Chef
The lunch menu came from chef Ignacia Valdés, whose résumé includes Michelin-starred kitchens in Paris and New York. Drawing on her Chilean roots, Valdés put a contemporary lens on native ingredients: caviar, cochayuyo, merkén, salmon, mussels and lúcuma.
For an audience of tastemakers, that ingredient list does double duty—it’s a meal and a market primer, introducing flavors many U.S. operators may not yet have on their radar.
The Wine and Pisco Masterclass
The afternoon’s masterclass paired two respected Chilean voices in New York’s beverage scene. Jonathan Charnay—Chilean sommelier, partner at Nuyores and former Beverage Director at three-Michelin-starred Masa—presented a selection of Chilean wines from the Itata Valley. Andrea Martínez Sandoval, Chilean sommelier and wine buyer at Astoria Wines & Spirits and Underground Wines & Spirits, explored Chilean pisco: its origins, styles and production traditions.
“Connecting Chilean products with the media and industry professionals who influence how consumers discover food and beverages is an important part of our work in the U.S. market. This experience allowed us to share the diversity of Chile’s offerings, celebrate the people and traditions behind them, and build relationships that can bring Chilean products to wider audiences,” said Andrea Sapag, Chile’s Trade Commissioner in New York.
Chilean Wine: Diversity, Quality and Sustainability
Chile’s wine regions stretch more than 1,500 kilometers, from high-altitude vineyards to coastal sites. Roughly 350 wineries export to 140 markets worldwide, with a portfolio that runs from premium labels to small-production, organic, biodynamic and natural wines.
Sustainability is a real differentiator here: 92 wineries are certified under Chile’s National Code of Sustainability, representing 80% of bottled wine exports. The Itata Valley, meanwhile, carries more than four centuries of winemaking history and a renewed buzz around varieties such as País, Cinsault and Carignan—exactly the kind of story-driven, lower-intervention wine buyers are hunting for right now.
Chilean Pisco: Heritage Spirit, Versatile Pour
Produced primarily in the Atacama and Coquimbo regions, Chilean pisco holds the oldest Denomination of Origin in the Americas. Its clear and aged expressions work for both sipping and cocktails—opening doors across bars, restaurants and retail.
The numbers are moving in the right direction. In 2025, Chilean pisco exports reached US$3.9 million, up 27.6% year over year, with shipments to 40 markets and more than 110 international buyers.
Seafood: Quality From the Pacific
Chile’s Pacific coastline supports a diverse seafood portfolio—salmon, mussels, southern hake, jack mackerel and farmed sturgeon caviar—serving both retail and foodservice, backed by food safety and sustainability standards. In 2025, Chilean seafood exports totaled US$2.918 billion, with the U.S. accounting for 31.7% of shipments, making it Chile’s leading seafood export destination.
Why It Matters
For U.S. operators, beverage directors and procurement teams, this is a supplier making a focused, credible pitch for shelf and menu space—and backing it with the two things buyers actually weigh: differentiation and traceability.
Wine buyers and somms: Itata Valley’s old-vine País, Cinsault and Carignan offer a genuine story at approachable price points, and 80% of bottled exports carrying sustainability certification is an easy sell on by-the-glass lists and retail shelves.
Beverage directors: Pisco’s dual clear-and-aged profile makes it flexible behind the bar—a cocktail workhorse and a conversation-starting pour, with fast export growth signaling improving U.S. availability.
Foodservice and grocery buyers: With the U.S. already Chile’s top seafood destination, salmon, mussels and farmed caviar come with established supply chains and documented food safety standards—reducing sourcing friction.
The practical takeaway: origin-driven, sustainability-certified products continue to win with American consumers, and Chile is positioning itself squarely in that lane. Operators scouting a point of difference for 2027 lists would do well to ask their distributors what Chilean inventory they can get.
For more on how beverage producers turn recognition into real sales, see our guide on nine ways to turn a spirits medal into sales, and for inspiration on building a cocktail program around a distinctive spirit, explore CTK Bar, the Hell’s Kitchen cocktail R&D lab you can drink in.
Are you already working Chilean wine, pisco or seafood into your program—or planning to? Tell us what’s selling in the comments.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” for founding American Wholesale Floral. Politz is also the founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
Dining and Cooking