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2006 Arboleda Carmenere
Caliterra Estate
Nicks Wine Merchants / Vintage Direct search the world for extraordinary and exciting new wines, continuing a policy of dealing directly with wineries whenever possible. This ensures that we can continue to introduce the widest variety of new wine experiences while offering exceptional value for money at every price point. Our last pre-arrival offer from Chile featured the wines of Vinhos Los Vascos, showcasing rare French First Growth flair and a degree of value that is only achievable by bypassing wholesalers. The majority of these wines sold out in a matter of weeks with the offer dramatically oversubscribed. Thankfully, Lafite Rothschild are not unique in recognising Chile's potential as a world class wine producer. The American wine legend, Robert Mondavi (who recently passed away at the age of 94) was one of the first to do so. As a pioneering giant of California's Napa Valley wine industry, Mondavi is admired not only for his winemaking and drive, but for revolutionising the way the world perceived Californian wine - a strategy that cleared the way for the modern era of $2,000 cult bottles of Screaming Eagle and trophy wineries. Mondavi had already established strong relationships with the royalty of European winemaking (including France’s Baron Rothschild and Italy’s ’Frescobali's) when in the late 1980's, he identified one of the New World's most exciting and important winegrowing regions as Chile. In the Colchagua Valley he wasted no time in seeking, then forging a potent partnership with the fifth generation family of Eduardo Chadwick of Vina Errazuriz. The new venture, which commenced in 1996 was called “Caliterra” (CALI refers to 'calidad' (quality) and TERRA to Chile's 'tierra' (land). Since then, the Caliterra label has become one of Chile’s most famous wine brands.
Chief winemaker, Sergio Cuadra at only thirty six years of age, reflects the youthful dynamism of several well known Australian counterparts, having travelled and worked the wine regions of France, Germany & the U.S. in order to refine his technical knowledge before returning to Chile. In the vineyards, the emphasis is on high tech, precision irrigation to control vine vigour and restrict yields. Careful canopy management and fruit thinning are common practice. Caliterra's huge ongoing success must also be attributed to the flamboyant promotional efforts of Eduardo Chadwick, in particular, his organising of international tastings and seminars. Starting in Berlin, Chadwick invited forty of Europe’s leading wine writers, critics, sommeliers and trade to taste ‘blind’ a selection of the world's finest wines, including Chateau Margaux, Chateau Latour, Chateau Lafite, Sassacaia and Tignanello. When the tasting results were announced, to everyone’s surprise, except probably Chadwick’s, the Chadwick and Sena wines came 1st and 2nd. These 'roadshow' tastings were repeated in Brazil, Tokyo and Toronto with similar results. Sena has since become Chile's first icon wine, a testimony to the prudence of the Mondavi-Chadwick partnership.
In this latest shipment, we introduce a selection from the Chadwick family of wines, which in turn introduce a rare grape variety to Australian wine drinkers: The Carmenère grape is the sixth member of the Cabernet Sauvignon family (the others being Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot) and is capable of delivering enormous colour and flavour. Once common in Bordeaux, Carmenère is now rarely found in France; firstly because most plantings were wiped out in 1867 due to the vine disease, 'phylloxera'; secondly, because it is the last of the red grapes to ripen, and in Bordeaux often does not fully ripen resulting in green flavours. Chilean cuttings have thrived for 150 years and presently represent the countries signature variety. The flavour profile is as explosive as the best Australian Shiraz, and shows superb balance. We tasted a range of Eduardo Chadwick's wines several months ago. The stand outs, (which include examples at every price point in the collection) were selected for shipment to Australia in a refrigerated container, due to arrive in September 2008.
Produced from a single vineyard site. Vintage was delayed for ten days in order to fully ripen the grapes, achieving a voluptuous flavour profile and soft tannin structure. The wine was matured for twelve months in 45% new oak casks of which 75% was American and 25% French. A saturate of black purple with black purple hue, showing excellent cling to the glass. Superb lifted nose of violet, followed by blackberry and spice with a cinnamon end note. Mouthfilling palate with generous flavours of fresh blackberry and black cherries. Fine, almost velvet like tannins. Aftertaste of blackberry, spice and black cherry.
Cellar 4-5 years (2012-2013)
Alc/Vol: 14.5%