Wine & Spirits - October 2020 - 82

FOCUS: COLCHAGUA

CARMENERE & MEDITERRANEAN BLENDS
Our blind panels tasted 31 new-release reds from Colchagua for this issue. Joshua Greene, our critic for Chile, rated 11 as exceptional
(90+) and 9 as Best Buys. Subscribers can find a complete list of wines tasted, and all reviews, at wineandspiritsmagazine.com.

BLENDS
125964

93 | Domaines BournetLapostolle

$160

2016 Colchagua Clos Apalta ^ Michel Rolland developed this wine for the MarnierLapostolle family at its estate in Apalta,
where the old vines on the valley floor date
to the 1920s, and younger vines climb the
horseshoe-shaped hills. Now headed up by
winemaker Jacques Begarie, the team began
harvest in 2016 with merlot on March 10 (17
percent of the blend), continuing with cabernet sauvignon on March 18 (19 percent)
and starting in on carmenère on April 12
(accounting for 64 percent of the blend).
Those varieties come together in a powerful
wine with a deep crimson color and rich lavender scents layered over tart plum flavors.
The fine tannins show incipient complexity
in their mineral length of savor. Cellar this
for ten years or more. § Winebow Imports, NY
125739

sauvignon and grenache noir. Sven Bruchfeld
fermented and aged each variety separately,
then assembled the blend and aged it for an
additional year in stainless steel. The result is
a wine with bright acidity pointing up scents
of tobacco leaf and some reduction in a hint
of red onion, making this a mouthwatering
red for grilled duck. § Craveiro, Denver, CO

125742

92 | Carmen

$30

2017 Colchagua Valley Winemaker's
Black Apalta ^ This is a beefy-rich carmenère
spiced up by syrah and cabernet franc, which
make up a quarter of the blend. Notes of bay
leaf and black peppercorn edge the satin texture, the wine ending luscious, savory and
bright. Decant it for slow-braised beef. § Santa
Rita USA, Coral Gables, FL
125718

2018 Colchagua Valley (Best Buy) ^  This
blend focuses on cabernet sauvignon (60
percent) with syrah and carmenère providing the balance. It's a dark wine, blue-black
and rich with concentrated plum and cola
flavors. Juicy and harmonious. § Quintessential, Napa, CA
125750

91 | Montes

$17

2015 Rapel Valley Le Rouge (Best Buy) ^
Close to equal parts cabernet sauvignon,
carmenère, merlot and syrah, this blend
aged in mostly older oak, which allowed the
contrasts of its tart red fruit and black fruit
to come to the fore. The fruit persists long
after each sip, a complement to steak, seared
rare, with chimichurri. § MundoVino/Winebow
Imports, NY

91 | Polkura

$21

2017 Colchagua Valley Twins (Best Buy) ^
Tempranillo makes up only ten percent of
this blend, syrah 30, but together they tip
the balance toward a Mediterranean feel,
taking cabernet and carmenère in a ripe,
floral direction. A fresh herb character and
an earthiness, like pressed flowers, highlights
the fragrant red fruit of the wine, keeping it
high toned and spicy. § Kobrand, Purchase, NY
125697
2017 Colchagua Valley Marchigüe Juli
(Best Buy) ^ Marchigüe is in western Colchagua, close to the Pacific and vunerable to its
winds. The cold ocean currents translate into
the crunchy black-plum flavors of this single-vineyard blend-syrah, malbec, cabernet
82

WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2020

91 | La Pincoya

$20

90 | Lapostolle

$19

decisions show off the coolness of the site, the
fruit chilled by cold air descending from the
mountains. A blend of selected micro-lots,
this wine's fruit is delicate, with floral strawberry notes and an explosion of cool mineral
tannins, their structure firm and encouraging to the bright red fruit. A friendly Chilean
beauty. § Vine Connections, Sausalito, CA
125692

94 | Montes

$95

92 | Apaltagua

$17

92 | Lapostolle

$25

2017 Colchagua Valley Purple Angel ^ The
purple in this wine comes, in part, from
eight percent petit verdot, deepening the
ripe carmenère flavors. The richness of the
wine comes from a blend of fruit from Apalta
and cooler Marchigüe in western Colchagua;
there's a weeklong cold soak before fermentation, and the wine rests on its skins post fermentation before being racked into French
oak barrels, 80 percent of them new. It's a
recipe for power and international fame,
and that oak does show as a primary element at first. But there's beautiful fruit that
keeps juicing up from behind the oak until it
becomes the primary driver (it's there from
the start, but it really emerges three days
after the wine is first opened). Name your
dark fresh berry-blackberry, black currant,
blueberry-and you may well find it in the
wine, along with a satin texture that's hard to
resist. § Kobrand, Purchase, NY
125992

$50

2018 Colchagua Valley Apalta Vineyard
Selection Gran Reserva Envero Carmenère (Best Buy) ^  This wine's green and red
tones come together to parallel the contrasts in pastel de choclo, the traditional Chilean corn and beef pie. Here, it's dark green
tobacco and meaty bitter chocolate against
red fruit brightness. It might sound strange,
but it works, especially with chorizo, where
the wine's spice acts as an accelerant to the
spice of the cured meat. § Global Vineyard
Importers, Berkeley, CA
125689

2013 Colchagua Valley Microterroir Los
Lingues Carmenère ^ Mario Geisse developed this wine through experimental vinifications of small parcels at Casa Silva's vineyard in the foothills of the Andes. His harvest

2016 Colchagua Valley Cuvée Alexandre
Viñedo Apalta Carmenère ^ Lapostolle's
vineyards are tucked into a south-facing
amphitheater against the hills of Apalta, with

CA RMENERE
125716

95 | Casa Silva
http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/la+pincoya+2018+colchagua+valley+red+blend
Wine & Spirits - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - October 2020
