Is it because it's picked unripe so it doesn't spoil in transit? I'll bet for people who live in Chile the red cherries they get locally taste great.

Most likely?

I appreciate how food tastes, and cherries in the winter are expensive and tasteless. Summer cherries are the complete opposite, specially if you live in a state where they produce them locally. In WA they invented their own hybrid cherry, the Rainier, which is also really good but you can only get during a short period of time.