The two wines, one from Aconcagua Valley, one from Puente Alto in the Maipo Valley, are Chile’s fine wine flagships.
Francisco Baettig, chief winemaker for both wines, was in London to present the 2020 vintage releases of these two flagships. To put the wines into their vintage context, and to show the stylistic evolution, he presented mini-verticals of both wines.
The Viña Seña project was conceived in 1995 as a joint venture by Eduardo Chadwick – scion of a Chilean wine dynasty and the late Robert Mondavi – one of California’s quality pioneers of the 20th century. They released their first wine in 1997 and were clear that it had to be a Chilean landmark. The Chilean DNA is preserved by the fact that there always is Carmenère in the Viña Seña blend. The ideal site was considered to be in the Aconcagua Valley. Baettig notes that while it is at this point where the Coastal Range is highest, the Aconcagua river valley still channels cool air from the Pacific Ocean to the Viña Seña vineyard – despite being 40km away. Its well-drained, gravelly alluvial soils are perfect for ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.
Viñedo Chadwick, on the other hand, was conceived earlier. Unusually, the vineyard is located on a former polo field on the Chadwick family’s estate – Alfonso Chadwick (1914-1993) was one of Chile’s greatest polo players. Alfonso’s son Eduardo recognised the potential of the site and planted the polo field to Cabernet Sauvignon in 1992 – at Puente Alto in the Maipo Valley at an altitude of 650m. The site is very well-drained with soils of clay on top of deep alluvial gravels on a former terrace of the river Maipo. Cool Andean breezes moderate hot daytime temperatures. The first vintage of Viñedo Chadwick was made in 1999 and the wine is usually either pure Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet with a small addition of Petit Verdot.
Both wines showed that they could evolve – as they should with their price tags. Both have the aristocratic structure of fine Cabernet Sauvignon, but both also show increasing finesse, especially of the tannins, with the newer vintages. Right now, the more mature vintages have the beautiful tertiary aromas of evolution, but the younger vintages will become even better with age. One taster remarked ruefully that she “would like to fast-forward ten years” so she could taste the 2019s and 2020s at that stage of their development. Francisco Baettig said that a lot had been learnt in Chile collectively over the past decades: “We can produce wines in Chile that are very opulent and ripe, but we can also produce wines that are more calibrated and restrained.”
Francisco Baettig noted that the 2020 vintage was preceded by a “very, very dry winter in 2019 with almost no water.” He characterised 2020 as a “warm, early season” with a harvest in mid-March. “2020 was a very hot vintage in Chile,” he said, noting that the good fruit set helped to moderate the ripening. He noted that for many in Chile the main issue in 2020 had been water stress – luckily not in either of these two vineyards.
READ THE TASTING NOTES HERE for Errazuriz 2020 Viñedo Chadwick Release & Mini Vertical
READ THE TASTING NOTES HERE Errazuriz 2020 Viña Seña Release & Mini Vertical
