Winemaker Notes
Blend: 87% Carmenere, 8% Petit Verdot, 5% Malbec
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Beautiful aromas of flowers and dark berries plus dark chocolate. Full body, round and polished tannins and a savory, fruity finish. A balanced red.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Ripe and lusty, this is earthy and foresty on the nose, with plenty of oak, olive, eucalyptus and graphite. The palate is saturated almost to the point of being too heavy, but that only means that lush, penetrating, herbal blackberry and cola flavors have a stout base to work with. A toasted finish with some bitterness closes this out.
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.
Well-regarded for intense and exceptionally high quality red wines, the Colchagua Valley is situated in the southern part of Chile’s Rapel Valley, with many of the best vineyards lying in the foothills of the Coastal Range.
Heavy French investment and cutting-edge technology in both the vineyard and the winery has been a boon to the local viticultural industry, which already laid claim to ancient vines and a textbook Mediterranean climate.
The warm, dry growing season in the Colchagua Valley favors robust reds made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Malbec and Syrah—in fact, some of Chile’s very best are made here. A small amount of good white wine is produced from Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.