Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I was surprised by the aromatics of the 2014 Chaski Petit Verdot, which is produced with grapes grown on alluvial soils from a stony part of their estate with 55% boulders and 10% to 20% clay that softens the powerful and structured Petit Verdot. 2014, the same as 2013, was a cool vintage in the zone, and the harvest was delayed to achieve good ripeness in a variety that ripens late anyway. It fermented with indigenous yeasts in troncoconic stainless steel vats and aged in French oak barrels (60% of them new) for 16 months. I find that the grape is not an easy one to make varietal wines. But this is an exception, and the wine comes through as fragrant and balanced, when it's often too roasted and heavy. This is elegant and soft, which for winemaker Germán Lyon is proof of how these stone terroirs can soften the more structured grapes. Vinification is very soft (following more the logic of a Syrah than a Cabernet Sauvignon), with little extraction, and you notice it in the palate. If you want a subtle Petit Verdot, this is the one.
One of the original Bordeaux varieties, Petit Verdot has a bold structure, color and aromas, which allow it to make a significant difference in Bordeaux Blends—even in modest amounts. While it isn’t planted in Bordeaux in great quantities anymore, its virtues are increasingly identified elsewhere. Somm Secret—Producing phenomenal single-varietal wines in hot and dry locations in the New World, Petit Verdot also finds a happy home in parts of Spain as well as in in Portugal’s Alentejo where it gracefully blends with the regions' indigenous varieties.
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.