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Zonin to introduce new Chile project at Vinexpo
Italian producer Zonin 1821 is to announce further details of its new Chilean venture at Vinexpo later this month.
The group will be introducing its new ‘Dos Almas’ wines at the show – three ‘Reserva’ wines, three ‘Gran Reservas’ and a sparkling wine.
The three reservas include: a Sauvignon Blanc from Casablanca and a Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere from Colchagua, while the gran reservas cover a Pinot Noir from Casablanca and another Cabernet and a red blend from Maipo. The sparkling wine is a blanc de blancs made from Chardonnay.
A family trip to the South American country six years agao apparently provided the inspiration for the venture.
As Zonin’s president, Domenico Zonin, explained: “The name ‘Dos Almas’ – ‘Two Souls’ – perfectly describes the integration of two worlds, which brings Italian winemaking culture and Chilean terroir together in perfect harmony. In Chile high quality wines can be produced combining the rich heritage of the Zonin family’s winemaking expertise with the youthful terroir of Chile.”
Available to taste at stand DE119 throughout the fair, on Monday 19 June guests can experience some live cooking from Chilean chef Cristian Rebolledo who will be whipping up dishes to serve with the wines.
Zonin, long established and respcected in the U.S. state of Virginia, now makes the Chilean leap. Worth noting, “reserva” and “gran reserva” are not defined terms for wines in Chile, where those words are used to mimic Spain, without any guarantee of quality. Pure marketing terms, not legal definitions of expected qualities or aging regimes or processes. Just saying, Also, no mention is made of the process for the sparkling wine, be it sparging, charmat, botttle fermentation… no clue. More information please, on all of the wines. What makes them special enough to borrow high-brow designations which mean nothing whatsoever in Chilean wine terminology?
Will drinksbusiness dare publish these comments and questions, or are they just a happy-wine page?
Sincerely,
Craig Thornbury
You are right; probably Zonin wants to grab a relevant piece of the market which is the Chilean wine category.
Nevertheless, if you benchmark the Reserva and Gran Reserva categories you’ll be surprised how close in quality they are between producers. Even though it might appear as harsh and not very “romantic” the market is defining the quality for those volume driven price segments, particularly in the Reserva category.
By the way in the US there is no legislation regarding that either. You could use the reserva if you will, as you are already using the “Chanpagne” and “Chateaux” terminolgy for your own wines.
i.e. https://napavintners.com/wines/how_to_read_a_wine_label.asp
Best regards,
Diego Benavente