Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Fabulous aromas of dark berries and granite. Flowers and sliced raw meat too. Full-bodied and velvety with incredible length. Clearly the best syrah of Chile. Very exciting. A great year for syrah with a long hang time. Aged for 18 months in new French oak that is imperceptible.
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Wine Enthusiast
Loamy, dark, rich aromas of pastry, blackberry, blueberry and turned earth scream “ripe.” In the mouth, this is bulky but focused. Flavors of black fruits, chocolate, fig, herbs and spice finish with notes of tobacco, raw oak, mint and bright acidity. Drink now through 2019.
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Wine Spectator
A ripe, rich and elegant red, offering refined yet powerful flavors of blackberry, dark plum, dark cherry and boysenberry. Very creamy midpalate, showing some notes of black licorice and pepper. The long finish is intensely spicy, with some savory accents. Syrah. Drink now through 2019.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Folly Syrah is pure Syrah from the upper slopes of the Montes vineyard in the Apalta Valley. It has a serious, somehow closed, backward nose, and it takes time to show the aromas of ripe plums, olives and raspberries as they are also covered by the notes of the wood, but the palate seems to have the stuffing to balance the wood tannins and improve in bottle. It’s quite full-bodied, with good freshness and focused varietal flavors. Give it some more time; this is a very good Syrah that requires some patience. Drink 2015-2020.
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Wine & Spirits
Extremely black, this may be immense in its fruit flavors, but it doesn’t reach the edge of hyperripeness. Instead, it feels compressed, lively and balanced between its acidity and sweetness. A big wine, imposing in structure, this is rich in spice and toast derived from its oak aging.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
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.