Winemaker Notes
With grapes from a selection of Apalta soils and a special fermentation, we achieve a wine with great body and concentration. 18 months in French oak barrels and 1 year in the bottle give balance and roundness that concentrates all the purity and elegance of the fruit.
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
Charismatic chief winemaker Felipe Tosso joins forces with ex-Penfolds John Duval to create a brilliant 100% Syrah from high Apalta vineyards. Beautifully expressed with the floral elegance of Côte-Rôtie and the spice of Hermitage.
-
James Suckling
Very savory nose, but with aeration more and more blackberry, plum and spice aromas develop. The full-bodied palate is packed with healthy, dry tannins and there’s more than enough bright fruit to carry them. The finish is full of herbal freshness. Drink or hold.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Pangea Apalta Vineyard Syrah was produced from an extremely warm and dry year, and the wine feels like it's from a different oenological era, especially when tasted next to the 2016, a much cooler and rainier year that forced many to rethink their practices and pushed for a change in the wines. This has aromas of dark fruit, soil and Mediterranean herbs. It has a full-bodied palate with pungent flavors, earthy tannins and a dusty finish. There is some earthy rusticity here.
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.