Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The top of the range Cabernet Sauvignon is the 2013 Pircas de Liguai Cabernet Sauvignon, a selection from their 12 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon cropped from a cold and late harvest. The grapes underwent a three-day cold soak and then fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel vats with a total maceration time of some 25 days. It matured in new and second use French oak barrels for 16 months. The wine has the light and the brightness, balsamic and very classical Maipo. You'd never mistake this for a Bordeaux, but it has the seriousness of the tannins that made Bordeaux famous. This comes from a cold year that provided very good freshness and wines that are developing very slowly. This wine will be launched in May-June 2017. It's very drinkable but should also develop more complexity in bottle. Alluvial soils close to the mountains have less clay. In colluvial soils (the stones are moved by wind, not by water), there's usually a little more clay, and the grapes used for this wine come from a combination of both soils. A textbook Maipo Cabernet.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
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.