2019 Vina Almaviva, Puente Alto, Chile (750ml) GLWS

TASTING NOTES:

Founded by Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Concha y Toro in Puente Alto, Almaviva excels with its Bordeaux-inflected reds created by Michel Friou. Its 2019 cuveé – 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Carmenere, and the rest made up of Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Merlot – enjoyed an extraordinary year resulting in a fragrant nose of dark fruit, lavender, eucalyptus, blackcurrant and cigar box aromas. The refined palate has a fresh core and velvety feel.
Decanter, 98 pts

The aromas of iodine and black currants with roses and lavender make the wine extremely perfumed. It’s full-bodied with a tight, fine-tannined palate that shows linear flow through the center palate. It’s vertical and integrated, adding depth and serious quality to the wine.
James Suckling, 97 pts

The 2019 Bordeaux Blend Almaviva is a blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Carménère, 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Merlot from Puente Alto that spent 18 months in three-fourths new barrels. Purple in color. The remarkably detailed nose begins and ends with notes of blackberry, black currant and blueberry, while in between, balsamic aromas ranging from camphor to ash appear along with a whiff of violets. All of the above comes packaged in a cigar box. Sugary initially, the flow is creamy and expansive, with polished tannins, while it grows more compact later on, stretching out the flavors. A red that showcases the best of Maipo.
Vinous Media, 96 pts

The 2019 Almaviva is a blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Carmenère (from Peumo), 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Merlot, higher in Carmenere and reflecting a warmer and drier vintage when then bottled wine reached 15% alcohol. It fermented with destemmed grapes in stainless steel and matured in French oak barrels, 75% of them new, for 18 months. Here, the Carmenere adds herbal freshness and changes the aromatic profile when compared with the 2019 Epu. 2019 was a good year for Carmenere, which suffers in extremely warm years like 2017, but in moderately warm years like 2019, the variety displays that herbal character and has good density. It’s full-bodied and round, with saturated tannins, tasty, spicy and long, with a dry, serious finish. It’s balsamic, with notes of camphor and a silky and velvety texture.
Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, 95+ pts

An exceptional vintage from the joint venture between Baron Philippe de Rothschild (Mouton) and Concha y Toro, this grows at a parcel of the old Tocornal vineyard in Puente Alto. Almaviva’s 148 acres of vines surround the winery on a terrace above the north bank of Maipo River. The cool elevation (2,130 feet) and the alluvial soils take cabernet in an elegant direction, rarely found outside Bordeaux, and rarely reaching the level of this latest release. It made me homesick for Chile, tasting the salt air of the coast and the mountain air of the Andes, the velvet-texture of carmenère (23 percent of the blend) and the cranberry and currant freshness of the fruit. Tight, floral, spicy and youthfully firm, this wine’s subtle power will sustain it for decades.
Wine & Spirits, 95 pts