2020 Rothschild & Concha Y Toro, Almaviva, Maipo Valley

Now one of the old hands on the Place de Bordeaux and still setting the pace; full of complexity and pleasure, with an embrace of blueberry and raspberry fruits. Cardamon, turmeric spices with lemongrass and dill, giving sculpted lifted acidities that have been maintained through the heat of 2020, an impressive wine with a floral edge. The 2020 vintage marks 25 years of this property. Winemaker Michel Friou. 75% new oak.

The 2020 Almaviva is two thirds Cabernet Sauvignon, a quarter Carménère, and also contains dashes of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot from Puente Alto in the Maipo Valley. It aged for 20 months in 73% new barrels. A rich garnet-red in hue. The ripe, complex nose is both fruity and jammy with cassis and blackberry notes, layers of herbs and ash, sweet spices, cardamom, traces of vanilla, cedar, and orange petit fours. Indulgent and broad with grippy tannins. This is a concentrated but relaxed, gently sculpted red in which the wood lends volume, with a fine balance and a long finish. Still young, it’s developing nicely. Will improve in the bottle but right now leaves pleasant fruit and biscuit flavors behind in the back of the throat. The ripeness is due to the warm year.

68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Carmenère, 6% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot . Deep colour. Sweet and sour on the nose here, blackcurrant cordial, dried herbs and a mulchy bitterness. Very polished in structure, but the wood and herbs are a strong overtone to the dark-cherry and kirsch notes in the fruit. A slightly numbing, clove-like spice to the wood. Long and sweet but marred by a disjointed flavour profile. (TP)