Aresti launches Merlot from Curicó’s highest vineyard

Chile’s Viña Aresti has launched a Merlot from Curicó’s highest vineyard – a remote plot located at 1,245 metres in the Andes.

Curicó’s highest vineyard is found deep within native forest on the Montes Obscuro at 1,245 metres above sea level

The isolated vineyard contains 4 hectares of Merlot, along with 1ha of Syrah, and a further single hectare of Cabernet Franc, and was planted 12 years ago by a friend of Aresti’s managing director Matías Rivera.

As part of a strategic decision “to have a pipeline of innovation”, according to Aresti sales director Cristian Becerra, the winery has used the Merlot to launch a wine labelled Altitud under a new range from Aresti called Trisquel Series.

The Merlot marks the launch of Aresti’s Trisquel Series

The wine will also complement a new Sauvignon Blanc under the same line which comes from a vineyard 15km from the sea, which Becerra assured the drinks business was “the closest Sauvignon Blanc planting to the sea in Curicó.

The Trisquel Series Sauvignon will be launched in the UK at the Mercado Andino trade tasting in London on Wednesday 9-10 September, and will be called Hualane Costa, after the small town near the vineyard in the coastal part of Curicó.

“We wanted to find Curicó’s highest vineyard and its closest to the ocean,” he said, adding, “because we want to be recognised as leaders in innovation in Curicó.”

Continuing, he observed that Curicó was not as well recognized internationally as other Chilean regions, and within Chile, it is better known for producing wines in high quantities, rather than labels of quality.

However, with better viticulture, he said that the region was starting to show its true potential.

He also commented that he believed that a warming climate in Chile might encourage more to move south into Curicó from the hotter, but more famous Maipo, which is north of Curicó.

The Trisquel Series Merlot comes from the 2014 vintage and was fermented in open bins in a makeshift winery near the vineyard, before the finished wine was put in used barrels, and brought down the mountainside in an open-back truck (see picture).

You won’t find this in Bordeaux: Moving barrels of Merlot from the mountains to Aresti’s winery in Molina

Just 600 bottles have been made of the inaugural Trisquel Series Merlot, which will have a retail price of around £15, but Aresti is planning to release 500 cases of Merlot from this year’s vintage, using grapes from the same site, but this year, rather than fermenting the bunches near the vineyard, they were brought to the Aresti winery, where they were fermented in concrete eggs.

As reported by db in August 2014, late last year Aresti launched a Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2001 vintage under its Family Collection label, which was released to highlight the age-worthy nature of Cabernet from Curicó.

And later this year the producer plans to unveil its most expensive wine to date using Cabernet Sauvignon from a 60 year-old vineyard in Curicó.

According to Becerra the new wine will hit shelves in October, and will retail for over £65, significantly higher than Aresti’s most expensive wine today: the Family Collection 2001, which sells for a little under £25, making it relatively good value, especially considering that this is a 13 year-old wine that has been stored in the Aresti family’s private cellar since bottling.