Wine of the Week 27 – it’s oh so nice to be familiar!

Cabernet Sauvignon is a wonderful grape. I love the sheer intensity and richness that it can deliver and sometimes I crave wines like the juicy, delicious, fruity New World Cabernets of my youth. Well, recently I have discovered a vibrantly fruity Cabernet that also has structure and elegance, so I have been using it in my wine classes to illustrate what Cabernet is all about – the fact that it is good value too is just a bonus.

It comes from Chile and shows what enjoyable wines that amazing country can produce, even at good value prices. I am sure that by now everyone knows that Chile enjoys a blessed climate that is perfect for grape growing and wine production. They have a long growing season, plenty of sunshine, diverse soils and cooling influences coming from both the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains. All of this, plus a great deal of knowhow means they can make wines that are capable of being utterly delicious – like my new Wine of the Week.

Map of Chile – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

Wild horses at the Caliterra Estate – photo courtesy of Caliterra.

2013 Caliterra Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon
D.O. Colchagua Valley
Rapel, Chile
Cabernet Sauvignon is, of course, grown and made all over the world, but ever since the mid nineteenth century it has been Chile’s star grape and was the variety that made Chile’s reputation as a great wine producing country. Styles vary enormously from being very soft and fruity to something more complex and interesting – this wine manages to be both fruity and interesting. I have known the Caliterra winery for a long time and first visited it more than ten years ago. Now owned by Errazuriz, it was originally a joint venture between Eduardo Chadwick, of Viña Errazuriz in Chile, and Robert Mondavi of California. Sadly Robert died in 2008, but they are both towering figures in the wine world and I have been lucky enough to meet them both over the years. 

Caliterra is a very beautiful place and I enjoyed seeing it, but it is fair to say that their wines have got better and better of late. What’s more, in recent years they have gone all out for sustainable viticulture and have left some 75% of their 1,085 hectares (2,681 acres) untouched to ensure the land has bio-diverse flora and fauna. The place is called Caliterra after all, which is from the Spanish word Calidad – meaning quality – and Tierra meaning land. By the way, although it looks Christmassy to a British eye, that bird on the label is not a robin, but the chucao tapaculo which is native to southern Chile.

Cabernet Sauvignon originates in Bordeaux where it is normally blended with other grapes for greater complexity, well this wine gives a nod in that direction by being 96% Cabernet Sauvignon with 2% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot adding some elegance. The winemaking shows an interestingly light touch with just 30% of the wine being aged in barrels for  7 to 9 months in 2nd and 3rd use barrels, which give less obvious oak flavour than new oak does.

The colour is a deep, dense and an opaque purply-black. The nose is vibrant and lifted with rich cassis, blackberry, deep raspberry and something floral, as well as some vanilla, tobacco and a waft of some mint or eucalyptus together with some black olives for good measure. The palate delivers rich, ripe black fruit balanced by lovely vibrant, fresh blackcurrant acidity, a touch of cream and some espresso on the long finish. This is a wine to enjoy without so much as a backward glance, or to serve with a classic meaty meal like a Sunday roast. There’s no hurry to drink it either, you could easily lay this wine down for four years or so to make it more complex. All in all, an excellent Cabernet for the price – 88/100 points.

Available in the UK at around £9.75 per bottle from The Oxford Wine Company, The Vintage House, Bin 21, Edencroft, Cheers Wine Merchants and Partridges of Sloane Street.
Stockist information for the US is available from Rodrigo Rodero: rrodero@chadwickwines.cl

I chose this wine because I find it so easy to focus on what is new and different, that it is nice to give a shout out for an old favourite from time to time and it offers great value for money.

Just so you know, I do sometimes do some work for Caliterra and their UK agents, Hatch Mansfield, but this is my honest and unsolicited opinion.