Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Reserve Merlot (100%) was aged in French and American oak for 8 months. It offers up an aromatic array of cinnamon, clove, incense, tobacco, black currant, and blackberry. In the glass it reveals layered fruit, spicy flavors, good volume, and excellent balance. This surprisingly rich Merlot can be approached now and will provide pleasure for another 4-5 years. It is an excellent value.
Vinos Santa Ema is, hands-down, one of the best value/quality brands from Chile,
offering one of strongest quality-to-price wine brands in the world today. Santa Ema’s founding
Pavone family trace their history in Chile back to 1917 when they first came to the region as
grape farmers. Nearly 100 years and four generations of hands-on experience gives Santa Ema
a deep understanding of the Maipo Valley’s unique terroir. The family has established a 500 acre viticultural ‘path’ from the Andes Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, featuring the best terroir from each zone of Maipo: Alt a, Medio and Costa (Leyda). Extensive and selective vineyard ownership allows for creativity and innovation in the vineyards and winery, while guaranteeing quality control. The result is a collection of generous, elegant, regionally distinct wines that overdeliver. Winemaking: The portfolio commences with the excellent value offering, Select Terroir Reserva, which offers excellent fruit concentration, purity of its origin and unmistakable varietal typicity. The next tier up is Sant a Ema’s Reserva/Gran Reserva range. This is the winery’s most traditional and best known collection. Consistently awarded with medals and scores, including a coveted spot on the Wine Spectator Top 100. Perfect harmony and complexity are achieved through delicate barrel aging plus bottle aging. The Am plus line plays on the Latin word for ‘important, sophisticated, distinguished and honorable’. Amplus wines represent the union of tradition and modernity. These are exciting wines with tremendous complexity and elegance.
Tied to the history of the so-called “lost grape of Bordeaux,” Carmenѐre, the story of Chilean Merlot is a fascinating one. For decades in Chile the former was actually thought to be Merlot, so the two were typically planted together and harvested at the same time. Since Merlot is an early-ripening variety and Carmenѐre much later-ripening, the resulting wines often tasted unripe and vegetal. Not until 1994 was Chilean Carmenѐre identified correctly. As awareness grew, growers and winemakers began handling both grapes more optimally, leading to significant improvement in the wines.
Today Merlot ranks as the third most planted variety in Chile, behind Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. It is mostly found in the following valley DO’s, from north to south: Maipo, Cachapoal, Colchagua, Curicó and Maule. It can appear both in blends or on its own. Either way, Chilean Merlot tends to show characteristic aromas and flavors of ripe plums, dark berries and herbs, often accented by oak, with a mouthfeel that is round and full.