Growing Conditions
This vintage brought a severe drought that lasted throughout the
season, thus completing a decade of water stress in the country’s main
vineyard region. The spring was colder than usual, which delayed the
budbreak and slowed down the veraison. Towards the end of the
summer, temperatures were milder and wide temperature ranges
between day and night helped the ripening process to grow more
uniform, which ultimately led to healthy grapes with great
concentration and excellent levels of acidity.
The heat continued during summer and accelerated the ripeness that arrived about 2 weeks earlier than usual. We started harvesting grapes for Carmenère on February at Apalta vineyards in order to obtain fresh and vibrant fruit.
Rapel Valley is one of the few places where Carmenère grows in ideal conditions. It is located in the central part of Chile, including the sub Valleys of Cachapoal and Colchagua. It exhibits a semi–arid Mediterranean climate with a winter – only rainfall pattern. During the growing season, we have warm and dry days and pleasantly cool nights as a result of cold breezes coming from the Andes Mountains. Rapel also has a cool influence from the Pacific’s Humboldt Current, which lowers temperatures in the coastal areas of the Valley. This leads to warm days with ample sunlight and dry conditions, allowing a slow ripening period. Carmenère is able to fully ripen but maintain all its fresh notes that are so unique to the variety.
- Vineyard name: Las Kuras Vineyard
- Soil composition: Alluvial and Colluvial Origin
- Training method: Espalier
- Year vineyard planted: From 1992
Harvest
April 23- May 10
Winemaking
Grapes were harvested and carefully transported to the winery in Colchagua. We obtained clean and pure fruit with strict quality control, thanks to the state of the art technology, our Vistalys optical berries selection for 98% of the grapes and the remaining 2% was hand de-stemmed. 97% of the grapes were fermented in stainless steel tanks and the remaining 3% was fermented in wooden vats at 28-30°C with gentle extraction methods.
- First vintage of this wine: 2009
- Bottles produced of this wine: 5,100
- Fermentation container: Stainless steel tanks
- Maceration technique: Gentle Extraction
- Prefermentation technique: Cold maceration
Aging
Size of aging container: 225L
Length of aging before bottling: 5 months
Nose
Fresh nose with red fruit notes such as strawberries and plums, along with red paprika and spices.
Palate
Medium structure with very nice red fruit expression, juicy tannins and good balance.
Appearance
Carmine red with violet hues.
Food Pairing
Serve from 15°C (59°F) to 17°C (62°F). The ideal companion for grilled red meat and medium seasoned dishes. Perfect for a corn pie or a grilled corvina drum with paprika.