Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Pirque Vineyard is a little closed but feels very solid. It has varietal and zone character, without excessive mintiness, faintly balsamic. It's still very young, but it seems to have all the ingredients for a great development in bottle, with the textbook tannins. Derek Mossman described it quite accurately as an “elegant blue-fruited gent with muscles inside a well-cut jacket.”
Cabernet Franc, a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, is the subtler and more delicate of the Cabernets. Today Cabernet Franc produces outstanding single varietal wines across the wine-producing world. Somm Secret—One of California's best-kept secrets is the Happy Canyon appellation of Santa Barbara. Here Cabernet Franc shines as a single varietal wine or in blends, expressing sumptuous fruit, savory aromas and polished tannins.
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.