Tres Palacios Family Vintage Merlot 2012
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Pair with red meats, game pieces and strong cheese.
Once they had found this mystical land 20 years ago, they decided to add an element they consider fundamental: the passage of time, thus respecting the rhythms of this activity and obtaining the perfect fruit that characterizes the wines of Tres Palacios today.
Vina Tres Palacios is a family-run company founded in 1996 by Patricio Palacios and his wife Maria Inés Covarrubias. Together they accepted the challenge and made the commitment to this adventure with the objective of leaving behind a legacy that will pass on the essence of tradition to the Palacios-Covarrubias family.
The cornerstone of this inheritance is the production of very high-quality, high-image wines based on grapes grown under the strictest standards of quality control. This is how their extraordinary wines began, and in just a very short period they began attracting considerable attention and earning awards in major international competitions.
Motivated by their enterprising spirit and thoroughly aware of the strong competition, they decided to take a different approach to this industry that is increasingly demanding of quality and innovation. With patience—and much passion—they began their search for an area that had never before been used for winemaking. Convinced that this was the road to success, they happily assumed the risks associated with such a daring move. That is how development takes place in the Cholqui Valley sector of the Maipo Valley, which all of the climatological analyses of the Department of Agriculture of the Universidad Católica showed exceptional indicators, placing it among the world’s best vitivinicultural zones for growing the varieties selected by Vina Tres Palacios.
With generous fruit and supple tannins, Merlot is made in a range of styles from everyday-drinking to world-renowned and age-worthy. Merlot is the dominant variety in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol, where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc to spectacular result. Merlot also frequently shines on its own, particularly in California’s Napa Valley. Somm Secret—As much as Miles derided the variety in the 2004 film, Sideways, his prized 1961 Château Cheval Blanc is actually a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
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.