Hors Bordeaux tasting notes: Chile and Argentina

Chile has seen a staggering set of releases this autumn, with wines of great personality and individuality that speak eloquently of their terroirs – and although the number of Argentinian releases may be limited, the quality is not. Colin Hay reports.

It seems almost invidious to single out individual wines, but if I force myself to do so, I was perhaps most impressed by Clos Apalta and Viñedo Chadwick, very closely followed by Vigna Maquis (above all the new Franco release), Almaviva, Seña and VIK. But I’d happily make space in my cellar for any of these.

Chilean releases	Vintage	Region	1st release?	Rating
Rocas de Seña	2022	Aconcagua Valley	No	93
Seña	2022	Aconcagua Valley	No	97
Viñedo Chadwick	2022	Maipo Valley	No	98
EPU (Almaviva)	2022	Maipo Valley	No	92
Almaviva	2022	Maipo Valley	No	97
Santa Rita Casa Real	2021	Maipo Valley	No	95+
Montes Muse	2021	Maipo Valley	No	96
Clos Apalta Prélude	2022	Colchagua Valley	Yes	93
Le Petit Clos	2021	Colchagua Valley	No	96
Clos Apalta	2021	Colchagua Valley	No	98
Vigna Maquis Viola	2020	Colchagua Valley	No	96
Vigna Maquis Viola	2014	Colchagua Valley	No	96+
Vigna Maquis Franco	2020	Colchagua Valley	No	97+
Vigna Maquis Franco	2014	Colchagua Valley	No	96
VIK	2021	Cachapoal Valley	No	97

Rocas de Seña 2022 (Valle del Aconcagua, Chile; 33% Malbec; 25% Syrah; 21% Cabernet Sauvignon; 9% Petit Verdot; 7% Mourvèdre; 5% Grenache; aged in oak barrels, 40% of which are new, and concrete eggs; 13.5% alcohol; tasted twice, the second time with Francisco Baettig over Zoom). Distinctly saline – with almost a salted peanut note. Violet. Candlewax. Incense. A little candyfloss. Cigar smoke. Spice. Aromatic Szechuan peppercorns. Plum and dark berry fruits, crunchy black raspberry too. Home-made raspberry jam as it’s being made. A little dried petal note. A wild herbal element too and a more savoury, slightly meaty, gamey note (no doubt from the Syrah and the Mourvèdre). Sinuous and quite fluid over the palate, if without the density and length of Seña itself. But what it has is agility, a certain levity and that brings an ethereal quality. Overall, a pleasingly articulate introduction to the grand vin with much of its charm and personality in an already accessible form. Harmony. Quite grippy, structuring the linear tight frame. 93.

Seña 2022 (Valle del Aconcagua; 60% Cabernet Sauvignon; 25% Malbec; 9% Carmenere; 6% Petit Verdot; aged in oak barrels, 70% of which are new, and foudres; 13.5% alcohol; tasted twice, the second time with Francisco Baettig over Zoom). Wild and herbal, spicy and quite meaty too, with a wild, dusty earthy streak to it. Impressively floral, more and more so as it inhales and relaxes in the glass, with lavender, thyme and violet, a hint of rose, maybe a suggestion of saffron. Blood orange. Blue and black fruit. The rose petal notes bloom with time and gentle aeration. There’s also lots of fresh bright peppery notes – crushed green, rose and Szechuan peppercorns. Turmeric and cumin too. On the palate this is fresh, gracious, bright, lifted and very lithe and dynamic, above all in the luminous and crystalline mid-palate. Sinuous. Glistening and rippling on the finish. Almost gentle. Certainly one of the more delicate vintages of this wine that I’ve tasted. Long. Fine-grained and ripe tannins aided but the slow and stable maturation, due to residual water presence. More structured on the finish than the 2021. Singular. 97.

Viñedo Chadwick 2022 (Puente Alto, Valle del Maipo; 96% Cabernet Sauvignon; 4% Petit Verdot; a little less barrel aging, from 20-22 to 18 months; 13.5% alcohol; last vintage with Francisco Baettig as the wine-maker as he moves to a consultant role and tasted with him over Zoom). Very floral and expressive aromatically, but deeper, darker, more mysterious and a touch more austere than Seña – for Bordeaux aficionados, more left-bank too, exuding Cabernet seriousness and structure, despite its svelteness and lithe tannins. Cassis, kirsch. Patchouli. Wild roses. Menthol. Eucalyptus. Deeper and richer in the mouth, too. It was slightly cooler in the summer months than average, lengthening the maturation period. Great finesse to the tannins. There’s considerable complexity here, but some of it remains inaccessible in this nascent phase, hidden in that dense central core. Elegant and dynamic, dense and structured, compact and charged – more so than Seña. Impressive. But this will need, as it will reward, a lot of patience. Long but with tannins to resolve. 98.

EPU (Almaviva) 2022 (Maipo Valley; 84% Cabernet Sauvignon; 10% Carménère; 3% Merlot; 2% Cabernet Franc; 1% Petit Verdot; aged for 12 months in French oak, 10 % of which was new; 15.5% alcohol). The second wine of Almaviva. From an extremely dry vintage, warm in the spring but around the average in the summer with good variation between night and day time temperatures. Spicy, with prominent cinnamon, star anise and Chinese five spice notes, accompanying the fresh and more baked plum and black berry fruits. A touch of red cherry and a little fennel seed too. Extremely compact and concentrated, with quite a narrow frame and fine-grained but quite angular tannins that well-define the external parameters of the wine as it flows graciously over the palate. One notices the somewhat elevated alcohol only on the finish. 92.

Almaviva 2022 (Maipo Valley; 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Carménère, 4% Cabernet Franc; 1% Petit Verdot; 15% alcohol). Fascinating and distinctive aromatically, all the more so as it’s a little timid at first. A baked earth path, sun on sand, deep dark berry fruits – mulberries and brambles – and then dark stone fruits – damson and black cherry. Crushed black and red peppercorns and a hint of nutmeg. A massive attack of great intensity, depth and concentration, accentuated by the quite narrow frame, with the staunchly Cabernet tannins really grabbing the fruit from the moment this hits the tongue, pulling and massaging it back to the spine and releasing little plumes of juicy freshness like ripples as they do so. Quite sunny in feel (‘solaire’ as the French would say) and spicier than the 2021, this is a real vin de garde. Very impressive once again.

Santa Rita Casa Real 2021 (Valle del Maipo DO, Chile; 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; 13.9% alcohol; tasted twice, the first at the Joanne hors Bordeaux press tasting then at International First Growth’s tasting in Bordeaux). Incense. Spice box, even a hint of curry leaf. Cumin. Fresh, bright, charged with cassis and a little kirsch. Tight and very linear, but with a limpid and luminous quality which arrived with the freshening rain in mid-season. Strict and tight, a little less so when tasted a second time, with fine-grained but very ‘Cabernet’-fresh tannins detailing the exterior reaches of the wine. Yet fluid at the core. Quite impressive. Fresh on the finish. 95+.

Montes Muse (Valle del Maipo; 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; 14.5% alcohol). Candlewax. Cedar. Pen ink. Candied fruit. Angelica. Bubble gum. Black berry and black currant. Impressively compact and tightly structured by the Cabernet tannins. A little less strict and linear than Santa Rita, a touch more sinuous, though with a little more toastiness from the oak. Intense. Long. Serious. 96.

Clos Apalta Prélude 2022 (Apalta Valley, Colchagua, Chile; 53% Carménère; 36% Cabernet Sauvignon; 7% Merlot; 4% Pinot Noir; pH 3.6; 14.5% alcohol; tasted at the CVBG press tasting over Zoom with Andrea Leon, technical director; 3000 cases made). A third wine in effect, this the first vintage, from the young vines and lower altitude parcels from the valley floor. Quite a cool vintage, but more solaire and sunny than the 2021 vintage wines. Beautifully fresh and lifted in its leafiness. Very pretty and expressive. Vertical and lifted. A clay, earthy minerality. Blackcurrant and red currant leaf, a little bramble too; a little blueberry; but also a little raspberry and redcurrant. I love the leafiness here. Mainly Carménère, with a little Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Quite tight to the spine and with grippy tannins that accentuate that. Authentic and with a lovely intensity for a wine at this level. Vivid. Juicy and succulent and that’s very much the style sought here. Pure, focussed, precise but without the complexity of the grands vins. 93.

Le Petit Clos Apalta 2021 (Apalta Valley, Colchagua, Chile; 68% Carménère; 16% Cabernet Sauvignon; 15% Merlot; 1% Cabernet Franc; pH 3.56; 15% alcohol; tasted at the CVBG press tasting over Zoom with Andrea Leon, technical director). A cooler and more elegant vintage. More Carménère in the blend here than usual. A little hint of violet. Richer, bolder, broader in its amplitude and softer and more svelte on the entry. Mimosa, lily of the valley. There’s a lot more obvious saline minerality too. Creamy. More spicy too. Graphite, maybe a little HB pencil shaving, a hint of cedar. That signature lift and leafiness. Lots of intensity and the granitic tannins grip and draw this back to the spine, reducing the initial amplitude anticipated by the aromatics and present on the attack. A lovely dark chocolate note. Very precise and taut on the finish. Very linear. Tense. Exciting. More acidic than the grand vin and over a more restricted frame, but the same linearity. Well-sustained on the finish. 96.

Clos Apalta 2021 (Apalta Valley, Colchagua, Chile; 75% Carménère; 18% Cabernet Sauvignon; 7% Merlot; pH 3.79; 15% alcohol; aged for 21 months in 78% new and 22% two-year old French oak barrels; tasted at the CVBG press tasting over Zoom with Andrea Leon, technical director). From a little appellation of less than 800 hectares, surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills bringing singular climatic conditions as well as granitic soils on a southern exposure. Neighbours Santa Rita. This comes from the hillside plantings and the old-vines on the flatter parts on alluvial terraces for the Cabernet Sauvignon. A touch more oak influence. From quite a cool, almost cold vintage. Creamy but fresh and lifted. Walnut oil. More succulent and lush, plush and plump, though with lots of tension. A lovely florality. Clover. Lavender, wild rosemary. Damson, blueberry, black currant (but less than the other two wines), even a little black cherry. A little black pen ink. Graphite and a hint of cedar and acacia. Gracious and charming. Lovely. Tender. Lithe. Vivid and vibrant. Grippy in its tannins. Long and rippling, with the grip of the tannins building little ripples that release freshness on the lea-side of the breaking wave. Really very beautiful with such great impact. 98.

Vigna Maquis Viola 2020 (Colchagua Valley; 88% Carménère; 8% Cabernet Sauvignon; 4% Cabernet Franc; 13.5% alcohol; Eric Boissenot is the consultant). Dark chocolate ganache, lavender, dried rosemary and dried rose petals, crushed green Szechuan peppercorns and even verbena grains (not the leaves), a little espresso coffee and mocha. Radiant, with lots of vertical energy, the freshness of the fruit interwoven with the floral notes seemingly driving the wine upwards in the mouth such that the more ethereal and more floral notes seem almost to hover above the dense concentrated spherical core. Very special. 96.

Vigna Maquis Viola 2014 (Colchagua Valley; 88% Carménère; 12% Cabernet Franc; pH 3.63; 13.5% alcohol; Eric Boissenot is the consultant). As gorgeous as it is explosive aromatically, with a fascinating note of fresh sage dropped in smoking butter alongside the lavender, wild rosemary and dark berry fruits, damson and a touch of sweet spice. Tense, taut and with still quite grippy tannins that break up the flow of the wine as it touches the tongue and the cheeks, bringing additional tactile interest. Very lively and engaging, still incredibly youthful and with lots of fascinating detail. A joy. 96+.

Vigna Maquis Franco 2020 (Colchagua Valley; 90% Cabernet Franc; 6% Carménère; 4% Cabernet Sauvignon; 14% alcohol; Eric Boissenot is, once again, the consultant here). Tasted immediately after Viola, this has quite similar herbal and floral elements, above all the former, but is a little less rich, a little less ample in form and does not have the richer darker chocolate and mocha elements. Stalky, elemental, aromatically explosive and very expressive of both the altitude of the vineyard and, consequently, the Cabernet Franc. Crushed fresh loganberries, brambles and wild blueberries, that leafy cassis note that is so expressive of the dominant varietal here and assorted early spring wild flowers and herbal blooms. So gracious and aerial, light and lifted on the palate yet with a very evident structure and grippy, highly tactile, Cabernet tannins. Chiselled. Very fine indeed. Last year I preferred the Viola, here – by a whisker – the Franco. 97+.

Vigna Maquis Franco 2014 (Colchagua Valley; 100% Cabernet Franc; 14% alcohol; Eric Boissenot is, once again, the consultant here). Beautifully expressive aromatically, very lifted and intensely floral – peony, mimosa, blueberry and bramble, black pepper, black chocolate and a touch of clove and rosemary. This feels like a vine from a high-altitude vineyard and simply exudes freshness. Pure, precise, linear and with plenty of focus and a very well-defined central spine. This is very youthful, too, with plenty of grip from the finely-grained but very tactile tannins and a lovely fluid and dynamic mid-palate. A wine for the decanter – as it draws in the air it becomes softer, creamier and more relaxed. Excellent. 96.

VIK 2021 (Cachapoal Valley; 23% Cabernet Sauvignon; 77% Cabernet Franc; 90% aged for 20 months in French oak barrels and for 6 months in ‘Barroir’ barrels, which are re-cycled and re-used after 3 uses from fresh staves and toasted with locally-sourced wood; 10% aged in similarly re-cycled and refreshed amphorae, ‘amphoir’; 14.5% alcohol; tasted with the commercial team from VIK; Christián Vallejo is the wine-maker; night-harvested to lock in the natural freshness). Spicy, exotic, very ‘VIK’. Clove, curry leaf, Szechuan peppercorns, black peppercorns, rose peppercorns, cinnamon, nutmeg, plum (baked and fresh) and assorted dark and red berry fruits. Bramble and mulberry. Toasted brioche and naan. A little balsamic note, a touch of tomato purée, black tea leaf, a touch of lavendar. Mocha and grated ultra-dark chocolate. The oak a little more tempered than in previous vintages. A nice ample opening. Quite grippy tannins but that don’t significantly constrain the initial breadth, but which give this a lovely flow over the palate as it evolves. Very shapely and with quite a dynamic mouthfeel – the textures change, becoming more and more tactile. Quite limpid at first but the tannins pixilate this more and more towards the almost crumbly finish. Impressive structured and quite considerable. Chewy but always fresh. Remains just the right side of dry. 97.

Argentina

The number of Argentinian releases on la place may be limited, but the quality is exceptional. Cheval des Andes and Adrianna Vineyard’s Mundus Bacillus Terrae are both staggeringly impressive, but it is Viña Cobos’s Cobos Malbec that wowed me the most. I hope to taste La Violeta in the days to come and will update my tasting notes when I do.

Argentine releases	Vintage	Region	1st release?	Rating
Caro	2022	Mendoza	No	95
Nicolas Catena Zapata	2021	Mendoza	No	95
Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae	2021	Mendoza	No	97
Cheval des Andes	2022	Mendoza	No	97
Finca Canal Uco (Zuccardi)	2021	Mendoza	No	96
La Violeta (Bodegas Monteviejo)	2015	Mendoza	No	NYT
Cobos (Viña Cobos)	2021	Mendoza	No	99

Caro 2022 (Mendoza; 83% Malbec; 17% Cabernet Sauvignon; 14.6% alcohol). Clear, luminous, but densely structured. Floral, with peony and a wild garrigue herbal element. Tightly structured, quite strict and quite linear. Blocky. Foursquare. Serious. This is very much a vin de garde, impressively so. Very pure, above all on the finish. Dense and compact. 95.

Nicolas Catena Zapata 2021 (Mendoza; 46% Cabernet Sauvignon; 44% Malbec; 10% Cabernet Franc; 13.5% alcohol). Lithe and limpid, very fluid and quite crystalline at first, but with chewy fine-grained but grippy tannins more evident as this unfurls over the palate. As that implies, this becomes more focussed and even tight and linear after a more sinuous and crystalline opening. Oxygen seems to reveal the structure more. Pixilated by the tannins. Another vin de garde, less accessible perhaps at this stage than previous vintages but imposing and impressive. Puissant. 95.

Adrianna Vineyard Mundus Bacillus Terrae 2021 (Mendoza; 100% Malbec; 14% alcohol). Slightly dusty and earthy. Baked clay path. That radiant Malbec florality too. Crushed petals. Graphite, a hint of cedar and acacia. Blueberries and cassis. Lovely in the mid-palate, so intense and compact, but with a bold, broad and ample frame. Truly excellent. Less oak than Cobos, but these two for me are in a league of their own in the Malbec stakes this year. Lithe and limpid on the finish with beady tannins indicating the significant aging potential. Bravo! 97.

Cheval des Andes 2022 (Mendoza; 49% Cabernet Sauvignon; 48% Malbec; 3% Petit Verdot; 14% alcohol). Very floral. Beautiful. Quite Cheval Blanc in style and feel. Cedar, graphite, peony, iris, lily of the valley. Incense, beeswax. Lithe, precise, focussed but fluid and dynamic. Juicy with sapid ripples at first that build and form themselves into little waves of juicy freshness on the finish. Lovely. A great success. 97.

Finca Canal Uco (Zuccardi) 2021 (Mendoza; 100% Malbec; 14.5% alcohol). Intensely expressive and intensely floral aromatically, this is very vertical and aerial too. Parfumier’s essences of lilac and wild rosemary. Gracious and glowing, elegant and very fluid, a lovely wide and ample mouthful of fresh fruit juice pushing at the cheeks. Saline, with liquorice notes building towards the pleasingly sustained finish. Sapid. 96.

La Violeta (Bodega Monteviejo) 2015 (Mendoza; 100% Malbec; 15.5% alcohol). The samples have yet to arrive in Europe, so not yet tasted. NYT.

Cobos (Viña Cobos) 2021 (Mendoza; 100% Malbec; 15% alcohol; tasted with Paul Hobbs in Bordeaux and then at the Joanne press tasting). Inky. Creamy. Wild and ‘sauvage’ as the French would have it. Rich, full, plump, but ethereal and incredibly elegant and lifted for a wine with such considerable density, intensity and mid-palate richness and concentration. A very floral and aromatically expressive Malbec – with lovely Szechuan and rose peppercorn notes, rose petals too and wild thyme (which is apparently naturally present in the vineyard). Squid ink. Graphite. Iodine. Crushed rocks. Cassis. Blackberry, black cherry and bramble. Chocolate. Roasted coffee bean. I love the ripples of freshness that seem to radiate upwards from the depths of the glacial mid-palate, bringing additional textural interest. Very fluid and engaging. This finishes very high in the mouth and it is incredible, given the structure of this wine, how soft and caressingly gentle those tannins are all the way to the finish. Texturally sublime and wonderfully vivid and fresh, but all in harmony. Better than the 2020. 99.

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