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Almaviva is a joint venture between Château Mouton Rothschild and Chile’s Concha y Toro which began in 1998. This is a single estate wine made by native Frenchman, and Chilean veteran, Michel Friou. The blend is Bordeaux with a Chilean twist (the 2017 is 65% cabernet sauvignon and 23% Carménère (Chile’s emblematic grape). The wine gets 19 months in new French oak.
The Almaviva vineyard is in Puente Alto (with the now famous Maipo Valley. It is very close to the Andes, whose influence cools the vineyards. The Almaviva vineyard is at 650 metres, in the highest part of the Valley. Maipo Valley is often called the “Bordeaux of South America”, and it has proved ideal for producing great Cabernet Sauvignon. The 60-hectare estate is blessed with long, sunny days and gentle breezes, flowing down from the Andes.
James Suckling gave this wine a perfect 100 score and says drink from 2025.
The aromas of blackberry leaves and iodine are wild and exotic here with mussel shells and earth underneath. Full-bodied, tight and chewy with powerful tannins that show muscle. It’s structured and powerful. Dense and very, very deep. Don’t touch this until 2025.
Review Date: 1st April 2019
2017 was an unusual year, warm and extremely dry (178 liters of rain, but there was some rain after the 2016 harvest, so the soil had some water), and the harvest and the whole cycle was two to three weeks earlier than normal. That is the context for the 2017 Almaviva, whose vines saw extremely low yields (ten hectoliters per hectare in the older parts, 36 hectoliters per hectare in the young vines) and produced concentrated juice. The bottled blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Carmenère, 5% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot and 2% Merlot, quite similar to the 2016, and the alcohol level reached 14.6% with a pH of 3.65 and 4.9 grams of acidity (measured in tartaric acid). It matured in French oak barriques (825 of them new) for 19 months. It's a riper, rounder and softer vintage, with moderate acidity and a tender mouthfeel, really marked by very high temperatures all year round. They used a little more Petit Verdot in the blend, but there is no overripeness. The wine shows some herbal aromas (I really notice the touch of the Carmenere this year). They harvested extremely early (three weeks earlier than normal!) and were able to keep the tension in the wine, and it has a polished mouthfeel and very round tannins. It's a nicely crafted red blend, and they were able to overcome the difficulties of the year; I see the style of something between 2016 and 2015, quite compact. It might require some more bottle age to open up, and it should develop nicely in bottle. 180,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2019.
Drinking Window: 2020 - 2032
Reviewer Name: Luis Gutiérrez
Review Date: 30th August 2019
A Cabernet Sauvignon mixed with 23% Carménère, 5% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot and 2% Merlot from Puente Alto, Maipo that spent 19 months in French barrels. Reflecting a warm, dry year, the nose presents notes of black currant and raspberry jam, black tea leaves and sweet spices with a touch of kirsch. Gentle on the palate with firm, pleasant tannins, a loose structure, bold flavor and intriguing expression. A hint of menthol makes itself felt at the back of the mouth.
Drinking Window: 2020 - 2035
Reviewer Name: Joaquin Hidalgo
Review Date: 1st March 2020
