Aresti pushes premium with new ‘icon’ wine

Chilean wine producer Viña Aresti has launched a new ‘icon’ wine targeting the UK on-trade after signing with distributor Copestick Murray in April.

Código de Familia, which marks the producer’s 65th anniversary, will sit above its existing premium range, the Family Collection, and is set to become its flagship wine, winemaker Jon Usabiaga told db.

The blend is made of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and Malbec from Aresti’s Micaela and Bellavista estates in Curicó, and was first unveiled at Prowein in March. It will retail at around $300 per case of 12, or RRP: £50.

Usabiaga said the prestige wine represented the quality that Chilean producers can produce, with ripe tannins and a heavy enough structure to age it well.

There has been a revival of the Chilean category, particularly at the high end, he noted. “We have passed the area of just [producing] basic quality and can show that we produce the best quality. There is big potential there, both in the on-trade and the off-trade. People are buying in the off-trade, but why not take the to the next step?” he said.

The wines, he added, are produced in a fresher New World Style.

“For me, this means three things – well-controlled ripeness, temperature no more than 25 degrees and maceration times of skin contact around a third shorter than a [traditional] Old World style, which helps to show better the properties of the grape,” he said.

Although the Código de Familia has been given allocation to launch globally, the company’s primary markets include Finland, Ireland, Japan and China, but Usabiaga is keen to see it expand distribution in the UK, where until now, it has had only limited distribution for its entry-level varietal range.

The company, which was established on 1951 by Vicente Aresti Astica, as a bulk wine producer but refocused the business in 1999 to concentrate on estate-bottled wines. It is now managed by Astica’s two daughters, Ana Maria and Begona Aresti Astica and is pushing its high-end wines, Usabiaga said.

“At the beginning there was no focus on the high end, accept for the Family Collection within the Aresti brand,” Usabiaga said.

The company has three primary brands, Aresti, which target the on-trade, Espirito de Chile, which targets the independent off-trade, and Montemas.

The best-known Aresti brand has 16 skus – including its entry-level varietal range, its Reserva wines from the Curicó Valley using grapes from its own estates, Trisquel, which comprises site specific varieties, including two Sauvignon Blancs from Curicó and Leyda, a Syrah from Maipo and a Cabernet Syrah blend from Colchagua, and its ‘icon’ wines range, Family Collection.