Winemaker Notes
This wine has fresh aromas of spices, pepper, ripe black fruit and a mineral hint with notes of graphite. In the mouth, it is medium-bodied with intense, ripe fruit. It has a silky-smooth texture, balanced by elegant tannins and fresh acidity. It has depth and weight in the mouth, along with a very long finish. This wine can be enjoyed while still youthful, but it has sufficient structure to develop greater complexity over time.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Loads of roasted herbs here, infused with dried meat, against a background of brambleberries and blueberries. Medium to full body, some nicely structured tannins and a really vibrant finish. Savory and herbal in all the right ways.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
They didn't produce their single-vineyard Carmenere in 2016, but I tasted the 2017 Single Vineyard Alto de Piedras and also the 2018. This is going more in the direction of an old-school claret, with moderate alcohol (this is 13.3%) and ripeness for a warm and dry year like 2017, when they harvested earlier. You can feel the warm year, but the wine is terribly harmonious. It has a fine texture and is serious and balanced, really impressive.
Dark, full-bodied and herbaceous with a spicy kick, Carménère found great success with its move to Chile in the mid-19th century. However, the variety went a bit undercover until 1994 when many plantings previously thought to be Merlot, were profiled as Carménère. Somm Secret— Carménère is both a progeny and a great-grandchild of the similarly flavored Cabernet Franc.
The Maipo Valley is Chile’s most famous wine region. Set in the country’s Central Valley, it is warm and quite dry, often necessitating the use of irrigation. Alluvial soils predominate but are supplemented with loam and clay.
The climate in Maipo is best-suited for ripe, full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon (the region’s most widely planted grape), Merlot, Syrah and Carmenère, a Bordeaux variety that has found a successful home in Chile.
White wines are also produced with great prosperity, especially near the cooler coast, include Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.