BLOG ARCHIVE
I love Carmenere!
Friday, 9 July 2010
One of my all time favourite grapes is Carmenere. As Chile’s signature variety, this really has emerged as a popular wine over the last decade or two. What’s more, it is only planted in Chile!
A native French variety, it was almost wiped out completely after the great phylloxera plague, and then resurfaced in Chile at the end of the 19th century. Carmenere is just such a fascinating variety, producing wines of intense colour, soft tannins and restrained acidity.
Now, Carmenere isn’t the easiest of grape varieties to grow, and it certainly needs a lot of love and attention in both the vineyards and winery. It needs to be ripe, ripe, ripe! Luckily, the climate in Chile is ideally suited to the production of premium quality Carmenere – the cooling Pacific winds, warm, dry sunny days and cool nights allow the grapes to ripen slowly, ensuring maximum flavour development and tannin structure.
In my opinion, the best place to grow Carmenere in Chile is in the Cachapoal Valley, to the south of Santiago. Our Peumo vineyard is just perfect for growing Carmenere – a nice warm vineyard site that ensures we have fantastic ripe berries bursting with flavour!
2010 has been a great vintage at Peumo, however a mild spring meant we picked a bit later than usual. As always, patience was the key! We had to sit tight, and wait for the grapes to ripen fully – we don’t want grapes that may be a bit green, as it makes the wine more tannic and taste a bit thin on the palate. So we had to wait a bit longer than we’re used too, but that’s what you need to do if you want to make a great wine!
Our 2010 Carmenere is now maturing in oak barrels, but if like me you can’t wait, then grab a bottle of our 2009 Casillero del Diablo Carmenere from your nearest store!
A break from the vineyards...
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Vintage 2010 is drawing to a close – we will soon be ready to bottle the first of the whites, and the reds are maturing away nicely in the cellar. It’s been a great vintage, with the wines looking outstanding across the board. I’m particularly pleased with the quality given the tough times we faced after the recent earthquake.
Whilst the work in the vineyards is over for the time being, we are busy putting the finishing touches on the 2010 white wines in the cellar. The whites wines are looking (and tasting!) awesome – crisp acidity, bursting with vibrant fruit flavours and showing great length and complexity. The reds spending much needed time ageing and maturing in French and American oak barrels to give greater depth and complexity to the wine.
Throughout the ageing process we are constantly tasting, testing and analyzing each and every barrel to ensure utmost quality. On average we age our reds for around nine months depending on the style we are looking to achieve – less oak for Pinot Noir for example, a little more time in oak for a bigger wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon.
I recently showed my new 2010 vintage wines to some journalists in the UK, and the feedback was nothing but positive. Always good to get some good comments on my wines! Whilst in the UK I had the chance to turn movie star. Not quite a Hollywood blockbuster, but I did spend a day in front of the camera shooting a series of video tasting notes for the full range of Casillero del Diablo wines. A great experience, but I have to say, extremely exhausting!
Now I know how George Clooney must feel…. Look out for these tasting notes on our site, our retailers websites and You Tube soon!
Vintage 2010 must go on...
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Vintage 2010 Must Go On...
With vintage 2010 rapidly approaching, we were awoken in the early hours of February 27th by an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale - one of the largest in recent recorded history. I'm sure you've all heard about the damage caused, the loss of life and huge impact this has had on our beautiful country, Chile.
The epicenter of the earthquake was in the regions of Maule and Bio-Bio, two of the larger wine producing areas in Chile. Our company, as well as the rest of the industry, have been affected by this catastrophe.
Fortunately for Concha y Toro there were no personal tragedies amongst our employees and their families, and damage to our winery and estate-owned vineyards minimal. After a few weeks of cleaning up and making sure everyone is OK, we must now turn our attention to the grapes. As we speak we are receiving the first Sauvignon Blanc grapes into the winery, and busying ourselves with the start of the 2010 vintage.
On a personal level, I am sincerely grateful for all the messages of concern, which have been greatly appreciated in this difficult time.
Roll on vintage 2010!
Monday, 8 February 2010
Things are definitely warming up over here in Chile. I’ve just returned from a bit of rest and relaxation on the stunning Chilean coast, and am eagerly anticipating the 2010 vintage.
At this time of year the winery is quiet and calm, with the somewhat expectant team busy preparing for the forthcoming harvest - just over a month until we begin!
The real action however is taking place in the vineyards. This is the last chance we have to ‘work’ the vines, ensuring that we have just the right number of bunches of grapes per vine. This is an important part of the winemaking process – adjusting the number of clusters of grapes to ensure optimum development of flavour, ripeness and complexity. At Casillero del Diablo our vines typically produce between 10 to 12 tons per hectare – low yields to ensure premium quality fruit!
The weather also plays a crucial role in the lead up to vintage. Ideally, we are looking (and praying!) for warm dry days and cool nights to allow the grapes to move to the final stage of phenolic ripeness.
The 2010 vintage is around one week ‘behind’ the average – that is, we’re about one week later in achieving ripeness, which in turn means vintage will start around one week later than usual. This is primarily due to an erratic spring punctuated by cloudy days and cooler than average temperatures. All in all though, vintage 2010 is looking great!
Sun bathing for the vines
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Happy New Year from a sunny Chile and the team here at Casillero del Diablo!
With a year of hard work under our belts, it’s time for us to take a little holiday and reflect on what was another fantastic year for Casillero del Diablo. Our 2009 reds and whites are looking great – it’s always good to see (and taste!) the rewards of our labour.
With the vines in optimum condition following more excellent work by our vineyard team, we can all enjoy the holiday period. The vines can sit happily in the sun, and our only mission is to keep them watered. Irrigation is an integral part of vineyard management – too much water and we lose the concentration we want from the grape juice, too little and we risk damaging the vines themselves.
Next month the vineyards will change colour once again from their vibrant green hue to a beautiful shade of purple. We call it “painting” as if an artist has taken his brush to the vines – quite stunning. The vineyards never disappoint – at every stage of the year, there is something new to behold.
In the cellars, we continue to bottle the 2009 Casilllero del Diablo wines, with the exception of the Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc that you can already find on shelf. Indeed the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc is drinking beautifully; bursting with bright citrus fruit, one mouthful can transport you from the cold UK winter to the warm Chilean sunshine!
Well we are all taking a well-earned rest, soaking in the sun and preparing ourselves for 2010 – let’s hope it is as successful and enjoyable as 2009 has been.
Getting in shape
Sunday, 6 December 2009
It is amazing how our vineyards change as the months and seasons pass, from the baron landscapes of mid-winter when the vines are dormant through to where we are now at the end of November in the height of Spring. The vineyards are in full force, with a sea of vibrant green across the horizon.
With the sun shining, the vines grow fairly vigorously and this in itself brings more work for our ever-busy vineyard team. What we don’t want is too many grapes – that may sound strange but the fewer the buds the more concentrated the juice becomes and the better the wine in the bottle. So at this time of year, the team is cutting the excess shoots and leaves so that the vines receive their fair share of light, warmth and ventilation – the results of which will produce rich, fruity wines, whilst eliminating the more herbaceous, slightly aggressive notes.
It’s always exciting to see how our unique climate has an effect on the wines, and the 2009 Limari whites are showing real depth of character. The cool breeze of the South Pacific is reflected in each wine, with the natural acidity, balance and freshness shining in our Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Reserva Privada Sauvignon Blanc. These wines are outstanding!
With Christmas fast approaching, the parties will be in full swing before you know it. If you are looking for some great value wines to impress your guests with, my top tips would be the Casillero del Diablo Pinot Grigio 2009 - which is just hitting shelves in Majestic - and the classic Casillero del Diablo Carmenere 2008. Enjoy!
From all the Casillero del Diablo team, I hope you all have a happy and prosperous Christmas!
Spring cleaning in the vineyard
Thursday, 5 November 2009
It's full steam ahead in the vineyards with the warm Chilean sun transforming the vineyards into a sea of green! Since my last post, when we were just beginning to see the first shoots emerge from a dormant winter, the vines have exploded in a mass of green shoots, leaves and stringy tendrils. What a difference a month makes.
Our vineyard team is hard at work ensuring that each and every vine is in prime condition for the up coming 2010 vintage. At this stage of the year it involves a lot of shoot thinning – basically reducing the number of shoots (and therefore buds) to allow the vine to concentrate its energy on a smaller number of shoots, thus allowing for maximum growth and development.
Work in the cellar is also continuing – the 09’ whites are now bottled and making their way onto UK shelves, whilst we are in the final stages of completing the blends for the red wines before they are aged in oak barrels.
My pick of the 09’ vintage? Well, the Viognier was outstanding with a great acidity and honey-suckle character, whilst the Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere were the stand-out reds.
We’re continuing to receive rave reviews of our ground breaking Twitter activity that we hosted in the UK last month. It was a really cool concept, bringing Casillero del Diablo to life through live digital media. I really enjoy these kinds of activities, pushing the limits of how wine is talked about and creating something that is truly unique and innovative. Check out the video at http://casillero.posterous.com/
We’re also really pleased with the launch of our new global advertising campaign, Wine Legend. Watch out for it on UK TV screens over the next few weeks! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvgcxQulriE
Until next time
A Twitter of a Tasting
Monday, 5 October 2009
September heralds the start of spring here in Chile and we’re really enjoying the warmer sunny days. The vineyards are too, with the vines springing to life after a long winter of pruning and hibernation.
We are just starting to see the first new shoots appear on our Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc vines in Casablanca and Maipo – little green shoots and leaves of around 5 centimeters in length. Very exciting to see the vineyards starting to turn green again!
Whilst spring is a great time of year, I am also constantly on the lookout for frost, which can damage these young and fragile shoots. Fingers crossed we don’t have too much this year!
In the cellar we are continuing to work the barrels, stirring, tasting and analyzing to ensure the reds from the 2009 vintage are maturing away as they should. Really looking forward to getting these in bottle later in the year.
September has been a month of travel too, with visits to the US as well as the UK. After five cities in five days in the States, it was off to the UK for a hectic yet enjoyable series of meetings with key wine writers, consumer food and wine matching dinners with the lovely folks at Harvey Nichols, national radio interviews and even a live Twitter food and wine matching event. It was a bit like Masterchef meets Big Brother! Check out the video at:-
http://casillero.posterous.com/
Delicious!
Finding the right blend
Monday, 7 September 2009
It is the depth of winter here in Chile and that means one thing – long cold days in the vineyards pruning!
Pruning, which is quite simply the cutting back of dead wood and superfluous plant growth, is the single most important step in vineyard management. Prior to coming into its winter dormancy, each vine sets its buds for the upcoming year.
The number of buds set is governed by the growing patterns of the past season and it is up to us to prune accordingly so that the vine is not stressed and produces a healthy harvest. So basically, the pruning process sets the vines up for the next vintage – strange to think that in the middle of winter we are laying the groundwork for harvest 2010 in six or seven months time!
Whilst the vineyard team is chilled to the bone out in the vineyards, I’ve been keeping warm in the cellar blending and assembling the 2009 red and white wines. The whites are nearing completion and should be bottled in the next few weeks. Watch out for the Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay from the Limari Valley – amazing purity of fruit and crisp fresh acids. Fantastic!
The reds are also coming along nicely. This is a crucial stage in the winemaking process, bringing together wine from a number of different barrels to create the final finished wine. As funny as it may seem, each barrel has a slightly different flavour profile, so that Cabernet from one barrel will taste different to Cabernet from another barrel. The trick here is to bring the best of each barrel to the fore, creating a final blend that is better than the sum of its parts. No easy task let me tell you!
The vines take a rest
Monday, 3 August 2009
With the temperature plummeting here in Chile we turn our attention to the vineyards.
Following harvest, the vines job is done – at least for this year! So whilst the leaves turn a fantastic shade of deep auburn and orange, the vines are effectively shutting down and hibernating for winter. Our key activity this time of year is pruning each and every vine to our exacting standards.
Pruning, which is essentially removing the previous years’ growth, is a painstaking and time consuming exercise and one of the most important times in the lifecycle of a grape vine. Our main aim here is to prune the vine back to a pre-determined number of ‘buds’ – these buds form the new growth and eventually develop bunches of grapes. If we leave too many buds, we’ll have too much foliage and bunches which can be problematic; too few buds and we’ll not get enough crop. Definitely a balancing act!
Over in the winery (where I must say it is just a tad warmer than the vineyards!) we are busy assembling the blends for the 2009 white wines. At Casillero del Diablo we have a number of different vineyard sites throughout Chile – this allows us to use grapes from different regions, each of which offers a slightly different flavour profile. Bringing these different characteristics together to create the final, finished blend is one of my favourite activities in the winery. We experiment and trial different blends until we achieve the best possible wine we can. Over the last few weeks we’ve been assembling the Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and the Shiraz Ros?
The reds are also coming along nicely and have just gone through malo. Malo? Well, officially known as malo-lactic fermentation, this is a technique used in winemaking whereby tart-tasting malic acid, naturally present in grape must (juice) is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid. This basically gives the wines a softer more well-rounded mouth feel. In other words, it makes them taste fab!
Following malo, the reds are aged in French and American oak for up to 12 months, depending on the style of wine we are making. More on that later though…
Until next time.
Time to mature
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Well that’s it for another year – vintage 2009 is officially finished.
After many long days and nights in the vineyards and winery the team has finally harvested, pressed, de-stemmed and crushed every last grape – an extremely satisfying feeling I can tell you!
Whilst the work in the vineyards is over for the time being, there is still an enormous amount of work continuing in the cellar. We are putting the finishing touches on the 2009 white wine – fining and filtering and essentially preparing the wines for bottling. I’m really pleased with the quality of the whites this year – crisp, fresh and with great length and complexity. The 2009 whites are due on shelf soon so keep an eye out for them at your local retailer.
Meanwhile the reds are coming along nicely, spending much needed time ageing and maturing in French and American oak barrels, giving the wines greater depth and complexity. Throughout the ageing process, which can take up to 9 months depending on the style we are looking to achieve, we are constantly tasting, testing and analysing each barrel to ensure utmost quality. Unlike most of our white wines, which are released as soon as possible after vintage, our 2009 reds will not be available until at least this time next year. Not to worry though, our award-winning 2008 reds are on shelf in the UK now!
As I write this I am sipping on a warming glass of Cabernet Sauvignon in front of the fire - the weather in Chile has certainly changed and winter is definitely here. We’ve even had the first snow falls on the Andes – better get the snowboard ready! I hear that summer has arrived in the UK, hopefully you will have the chance to try some of the Chilean barbecue recipes that are featured on the home page.
That’s it for now – enjoy the heat wave in the UK and remember to always have a chilled bottle of Casillero del Diablo in the fridge, for those impromptu summer social events.
The end is in sight!
Monday, 1 June 2009
Well, after a long hard road the end is in sight – vintage 2009 is drawing to a close. We are in the final stages of picking, with the last of the reds almost in the winery and the white wines fast approaching completion. We’ll be bottling the 2009 whites in the next month or so – watch out for crisp, vibrant Sauvignon Blanc, floral and peachy Viognier, crunchy Pinot Grigio and soft, well-rounded Chardonnay in your favourite UK retailer from this July.
We have also just shipped our 2008 reds, which will also be available soon. I’m really proud of the wines, and was over the moon to receive some excellent awards at the recent Decanter World Wine Challenge and the International Wine Challenge. More on that in a later blog!
This May I’ve taken time out from the winery to spend a hectic 10 days or so in the UK and Europe. It’s hard to be away from the vineyard and winery at such a crucial time of year, but I have full confidence in the team to continue to excel in my absence. However, daily phone calls, updates and the ever-present Blackberry means I am never far from the action!
I started off in London with some great meetings with leading wine publications such as Decanter and The Drinks Business, as well as well respected wine writers such as Will Lyons from Scotland on Sunday and Peter Grogan from The Daily Telegraph. All very enjoyable tastings – the real stand-out was the recently released Reserva Privada Sauvignon Blanc from the Limari Valley. It went down a treat! Oh, and if you are ever on the lookout for a great place for lunch or dinner, try Fino in Soho or Moro in Exmouth Market. Awesome!
The main event of the week was the London International Wine Fair – one of the world’s leading wine shows. As always, it was a fantastic event and a great chance to meet with wine buyers, journalists and to catch up with old acquaintances. I really love the camaraderie within the wine industry, the constant exchange of new ideas, debating of technological innovations and of course the chance to try some fantastic wines from every corner of the globe. This is one event that I never miss! After an exhausting but thoroughly rewarding week it was time to take my weary feet off to Europe for more of the same!
I’ve just returned to Chile, eager to get back in to the winery, get my fingers dirty and finish off what is looking to be another great vintage for Casillero del Diablo!
Right in the Middle
Friday, 1 May 2009
Greetings from sunny and warm Chile!
We are currenlty in the middle of vintage – I’m a little exhausted from the long days (and nights!) but very excited about the quality of the 2009 vintage.
The Sauvignon Blanc harvest is already complete with the wine now happliy fermenting away in our stainless steel tanks. This should be ready for bottling in a few months and available on the UK supermarket shelves soon. Keep an eye out for it – delicous!
We are also in the process of harvesting the Chardonnay – about two more weeks and we should have this all wrapped up too. A the beginning of April we started the harvest of the first red varieties, Merlot and the following week we began to pick the Syrah. Just last week we started harvesting the Cabernet Sauvignon.
The 2009 vintage has generally been pretty good down here in Chile, though in winter we had a little more rain than usual which resulted in the vines being particularly vigorous. In other words, they grew a lot! We avoided any Spring frosts (always a concern!) and enjoyed moderate temperatures - great for the vines, though we’ve had to work very hard in the vineyard to ensure that the vines didn’t develop and ripen too early and produce green and unripe fruit.
The summer was warmer than normal (great for the tan!) though it did mean that we began harvest a few days earlier that usual – around 4 or 5 days early in the Rapel Valley and up to 10 days in the Maule Valley.
As a whole, the 2009 vintage is going to produce some outstanding wines with very good colour and structure, great concentration and fantastic mouth-feel.
Right, enough from me – back to the vintage!
The TLC has paid off!
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Vintage is in full swing!
At last, after what seems an eternity, vintage has begun! This is one of the most exciting (and exhausting) times of the year, when 12 months of planning, pruning and ‘tender loving care’ come to fruition. This years vintage conditions have been ideal with warm sunny days, cooling breezes and a long, slow ripening period.
Vintage started in the first week of March with the white grape harvest – Chardonnay from our vineyards in the Limari Valley in the north of Chile was first, closely followed by Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio.
Harvest began when the grapes were at optimal ripeness with the perfect balance of sugar content and natural acids. To ensure absolute quality, the grapes were harvested in the cool of night to preserve freshness and flavour and then crushed, de-stemmed and pressed almost immediately upon arrival to the winery. We are also just in the process of starting to harvest our other, more unusual, varieties such as Viognier, Gewurztraminer and Riesling as well as the first of the reds – Pinot Noir.
Pinot Noir is a fantastic red variety, though generally regarded as difficult to work with, and a little temperamental! It does require a lot of effort in the vineyard and winery, but the challenge is well worth the results.
This year I’m also very excited about the Casillero del Diablo Brut Reserva - we’ve got our hands on some amazing Chardonnay from the Limari Valley, some of the best I’ve seen in years. Chardonnay is one of the classic grapes used to make fizz producing delicious sparkling wine, full of crisp, fresh-fruit flavours. We make the wine by encouraging a second fermentation in the wine by the addition of some sugar and yeast. This creates carbon dioxide - the essential and alluring bubbles!
Well that’s about it for now – the fermentation tanks are calling.
Waiting for the Planets to Align
Saturday, 21 February 2009
The harvest beckons!
The 2009 vintage is nearly upon us and I can’t wait!
This is one of my favourite times of the year, when all the hard work in the vineyard starts to pay dividends. Our hardworking vineyard teams have been fantastic, and the quality of the up-coming vintage looks second to none.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been busy travelling the length and breadth of Chile checking on the progress in the vineyards – analysing the sugar content of the grapes, checking the natural acid and tannin levels and the overall flavour development. This is a time consuming, yet vital process, as it determines exactly when to pick. As the days go by, the grapes continue to ripen and develop and it is absolutely crucial that we harvest at the precise moment of ripeness – too ripe and we’ll end up with ‘flabby’ whites and ‘jammy’ reds; too early and we compromise flavour and depth. It’s a bit like waiting for the planets to align actually!
This year I’m really impressed with Sauvignon Blanc and the quality of the Chardonnay, whilst I’m just itching to get my hands on the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which are shaping up nicely. I’m also going to experimenting with a few new varieties and blends – all top-secret stuff of course, so watch this space!
Back amongst the vines
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Welcome to 2009!
I hope each and everyone of you had a fantastic festive season and celebrated the New Year with plenty of good food, and of course a few bottles of Casillero del Diablo!
I’ve just returned after a few well-earned weeks of vacation – there is no better way to prepare for the up coming vintage than with a bit of rest and relaxation. This year I spent a lot of time on the wonderful Chilean coast, soaking up the sunshine with friends and family, feasting on fresh seafood and enjoying a few glasses of crisp, cool and refreshing Sauvignon Blanc. Now that’s my idea of a holiday!
Back in the vineyard, I am looking forward with enormous enthusiasm to the start of the new vintage, which is rapidly approaching. 2009 looks like being an awesome vintage and I’m itching to get started!
Over the last few weeks I’ve been travelling the length and breadth of Chile, to check on progress in the vineyards and I’m really excited by what I’ve found! The grapes are in perfect condition, with the little clusters continuing to develop. We’ve been busy in the vineyard ‘bunch thinning’, which is the process of removing a few bunches of grapes from each vine. This allows for extra concentration of character in the remaining bunches, meaning that our resultant wines will be jam-packed with all the flavour you’ve come to expect from Casillero del Diablo! This is a time consuming practice, but one that is well worth the effort!
On a final note, my colleagues in the UK have been telling me that it’s freezing – more so than usual! My sure fire remedy to beat the winter chills? A bottle of Casillero del Diablo Shiraz – rich, warm and packed full of the Chilean summer. Failing that, an extra pair of socks should do it, eh?
Until next time.
Feliz Navidad (Happy Christmas)
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
In the vineyards we have been closely observing how the vines are growing, it’s like a continual new wave of energy, season after season – I love it! Now, the flowering is already nearly over and I can just see the tiny bunches of grapes starting to appear which makes me very happy. This summer is going to be excellent!
There are also many wonderful wild flowers blooming in the vineyards, which are actually one of our most disguised secret weapons! As well as being a beautiful accompaniment to our precious valley of vines, they are rather good at attracting a number of the nasty hungry insects away from the vine leaves and preserve our delicate new grapes growing.
Something also to give thanks for is the new wine on the shelf this month, which brings me much personal satisfaction - the Casillero del Diablo range now has its very own 100% Pinot Grigio from this year 2008. This is something close to my heart as, like myself, this wine of course has its roots in Italy, and also like myself, has a very agreeable character!
It’s a super wine and we are very pleased with it. I’d describe it as delicate and crisp, it makes the perfect aperitif. You can really taste fresh delicious aromas from fresh pear to a touch of lemon zest and gooseberry. Something to get your taste buds around before divulging in the festive feasts planned for the end of the year I’m sure.
I hear it's been getting a little cold up there on the northern side of the world, I can only advise you to warm your hearts on excellent wine, food and company.
Well, I wish everyone a beautiful and peaceful and Merry Christmas! We all have much to look forward to in 2009.
Chile is hotting up!
Friday, 5 December 2008
Here, back in Chile, it’s a beautiful start to the summer and the weather is simply fantastic. I have been visiting the vineyards and feel so much pleasure from knowing that the vines are right now springing into action. The flowers are beginning to bloom ready for the whole cycle of growth to start again.
The other winemakers and I have been looking closely at the vines hoping and praying for an even flowering this month - which is the best scenario for a good, even harvest come next year.
When the sun shines and the flowers are out at this time, I feel the importance of our connection to the land and how fortunate we are to work in harmony with natures cycles. It has been so exciting in the last few weeks to take journalists and our trade partners on that journey into the vineyards, and then taste the fruit of our labours together.
We had a particularly wonderful evening out in Santiago where we indulged a little on fresh seafood but we had the opportunity of course to complement it with a 2008 Sauvignon Blanc. Its crisp and lemony twist putting us all in that early summer mood, sorry, but this is the southern hemisphere! If it’s cooler and wintery with you, try the same combination and it will definitely give you a sunshine lift.
Well, we have much to celebrate with Christmas approaching, and if I am lucky I will be able to squeeze in a little family holiday before all the hard work really begins in February.
Final preparations
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
October was a busy travel month for me - I have been off around Brazil, such an amazing country with vastly different terrains and also such varying climates from one state to the next. I was hugely inspired by family run wine businesses and by the different techniques and different technology now coming into play in the wineries.
Luckily it has been a fairly quiet time in the vineyards because the vast job of pruning has now been done and we have just been making sure everything is maintained and ready for the hotter months to come. We have been doing a little work to improve the soil, in particular planting grass in between the rows which will help with soil quality later in the season.
Also in preparation for the new growing season we have been applying some practical pest control for our much loved vines –where we are sticking a sort of plaster around the base of each vine and painting this with glue –this is very effective at stopping the bugs climbing up into the leaves and protects the plants without any major intervention.
I am looking forward to the summer and the winery getting busier with visits and work beginning for the new season.
Do you know the Humboldt?
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Yesterday, we went to have a look at a new piece of land, very near the coast that Concha y Toro is in the process of buying. This will be an ideal place for us to grow Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, because the temperatures here are much cooler than further inland.
We are able to grow grapes which make really crisp, fresh white wines. There is a cold current in the sea, called the Humboldt Current, and it passes right by the coast here. The breezes that blow inland off the sea are really cold. You definitely need a fleece and a hat in the morning, even in high summer.
More and more of my job is involved with finding new vineyards and it’s really interesting for me. Our philosophy is to grow vines in the most suitable areas in Chile. So, for example, we would never plant Shiraz or Carmenere in this coastal vineyard – these grapes need a much warmer place to produce rich, ripe red grapes.
We need to consider the soils and the water source, and make sure that all these factors make it a suitable place for a vineyard. We have many different valleys in Chile, each one with its own unique characteristics. In fact, the distance between the furthest north vineyards and the most southerly vineyards is about 1800km. That’s an enormous difference in latitude, perhaps the biggest in the world for any wine producing region.
The geographical scale gives Chile a massive variety of styles and flavours to work with. A Shiraz from Limari Valley in the north will be elegant and spicy, while a Shiraz from a warmer location further south will be really rich and full-bodied.
Next week, I’m getting on a flight to the UK. It’s the annual tasting for the UK wine industry and this is our chance to show all our new wines to the buyers and journalists. It’s a very crowded tasting, with about 150 other Chilean wineries all showing their wines. It’s also a great chance for me to taste wines from the competition!
To prune or not to prune
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Now it’s winter, and with all the wines from the 2008 vintage either in barrels or already bottled, we turn our attention back to the vineyards. We’re already thinking about the 2009 vintage!
Our teams of vineyard workers get out amongst the vines and prune. This follows the same basic principles that any keen gardener would follow. In order to ensure a good harvest next year, we need to get the vine back into shape. Left to their own devices, the vines would produce lots of buds, which would flower and produce many bunches of pretty tasteless grapes. However, we’re looking for high quality, intense flavours so we want to control the number of grape bunches the vine will produce.
We prune the canes hard, leaving spurs for next year and we know roughly how many buds will be produced. We also want to make the vine grow in a certain way, so that the leaves will provide good shade for the grape bunches, when summer comes around again. We train the canes along wires and fix them with twine. It’s a very labour intensive job, but at least the weather is good right now – sunny and about 17°C. Pretty much like your summer ;-)
This is also a good time for us to improve the soil. We will leave the prunings to rot into the soil, providing an excellent supply of nitrogen and we might sow some grass seeds between the rows, to increase natural organic matter. Our aim is to keep the vineyards in excellent condition, because this is absolutely critical to the quality of our wines. If you can imagine that we have nearly 8,000 hectares of vineyards all over Chile, from the Limar?alley in the north to the Bio Bio Valley right down in the south, with about 1500 kilometres between them, all this is a huge job but an extremely important part of making top quality wines.
Aroma-therapy
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Right now, we are bottling the aromatic white wines from the 2008 vintage so that they will be in the UK market in time for September/October. This includes the Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Gew?raminer which have fermented in stainless steel tanks. We will leave the Chardonnay a bit longer in the barrel, so that it acquires hints of those lovely toasty, vanilla aromas.
The bottling line works day and night to get the wines bottled in time. We have quite new equipment which allows us to seal the bottles with screw-caps. For these types of wines, I think screw-cap is absolutely the right option. They keep the wines completely fresh and free from any possible cork taint. We still use corks for our more expensive reds and barrel-fermented Chardonnays. We use only the very best corks – they are costly, but we will only use the best quality for our wines.
The bottles are sealed and labelled and go into boxes before being transferred into the storage cellar. You need to be careful of fork lift trucks, which speed around loading up the orders into our trucks. From here, they go to the sea port of Valparaiso, where they will board a container ship bound for Europe. The journey takes about 8 weeks on average.
I’m just about to head off on my last long haul trip of the year…to the Far East and the US. We will travel around with our distributors, giving tastings and talks about the winery and our wines. It’s a very intense time and I love to travel but I do miss my family when I’m away, and the vines too!
2007, an historic vintage
Sunday, 29 June 2008
The 2007 red wines should be in the shops in the United Kingdom now. 2007 was, without a doubt, the best red wine vintage we have ever had here in Chile. It’s all down to three factors. First, the ripening period was long and cool. If you think about raisins – these are grapes which ripen quickly in really hot, sunny weather and they dry up and turn brown.
This can happen in extremely hot vintages and it means that we need to pick the grapes earlier, possibly before they have reached their optimum ripeness. This is why we prefer a long cool ripening period. Next, we had hardly any rain during the ripening time. Such dry conditions mean that we didn’t have any diseases or moulds that are caused by damp conditions. Finally, the vines produced fewer grapes than normal, because of the dry, cool conditions. Lower yields mean higher quality because the vine is concentrating all its efforts into smaller, fewer bunches of grapes.
All in all, we think that 2007 is an historic vintage. Look out for the ‘Historic Vintage’ stickers on the 2007 red wines to let you know that they were made from the fantastic 2007 grapes
Getting chilly in Chile
Monday, 23 June 2008
We’re in the middle of winter here in Chile and it has been quite cold with a bit of snow on the lower slopes of the Andes. We might be able to go skiing some time soon.
Right now, though, I don’t have time. I’m spending a lot of time in the cellar where we are blending the red wine from this vintage and transferring it into oak barrels for maturation. This is a very time-consuming job but one I really enjoy. We must taste samples from each batch of wine and make decisions about which type of oak to use. We use French and American oak barrels.
The French oak barrels have a very tight grain and give an elegant, subtle flavour while the American oak barrels give a really nice toffee/vanilla character to the wine. Once the wine has been pumped into the barrels, we will taste them regularly to check how they are progressing. We own thousands of barrels here at Concha y Toro. In the new cellar, they are piled one on top of the other and we have special supports to support the barrels in the event of an earthquake (which does happen fairly regularly but nothing too big!). The barrel room is air-conditioned and temperature-controlled.
Of course, you can visit the old ‘Casillero del Diablo’, if you come to the winery at Pirque, not far from Santiago. In here, you will see how we used to store our wines in the old days. The walls of this cellar are made of ‘adobe’. This is clay soil mixed with straw and egg whites. It’s a very strong material and it keeps the cellar at a constant, cool temperature. The walls are now covered with mould because the air is very humid down there. There is just one layer of barrels, and it looks just like it did in Don Melchor’s day.
London calling
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
I’m on my way to London to the annual International Wine Trade Fair. This is an enormous commercial event which attracts wine producers from all over the world. We take a stand and show our wine ranges to buyers, media and retailers. It’s a very dynamic week with lots of work during the day and lots of socialising in the evenings. I’m taking some samples of Sauvignon Blanc from this year’s vintage and also some samples of Chardonnays which are still in tank and bottle. We will also launch the new Casillero del Diablo Brut Sparkling, which is made from 100% Limar?hardonnay. It’s also a great opportunity for me to taste wines from other countries to see what they are doing.
This year, my wife is joining me and afterwards, we will take a holiday in Italy. After a hard vintage, I could really do with a few days of relaxing and good food.
The long cool summer
Monday, 19 May 2008
It’s now getting towards the end of May and we are still picking some vineyards. The harvest is actually about three, maybe four weeks later than usual and we’re getting some very cool, cloudy weather now. Such a long, cool ripening season is going to be great for the red wines. I’ll expect to see some really elegant Cabernet Sauvignons and super-ripe Carmeneres this year.
I’ve realised that I have been working with Concha y Toro for 10 years this month! It’s been a fantastic decade and I’m very happy to have been working with a brand like Casillero del Diablo. We have come a long way since 1998, with new vineyards in many different parts of Chile that are producing excellent quality.
Personally, my favourite vineyards are in the Limar?alley and we have a special Casillero del Diablo Chardonnay from this region. It’s an exciting place because it is actually a desert landscape on the outskirts of the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth. Due to its location near the Pacific Ocean with no mountains to shelter it from sea breezes, it has a very cool climate but lots of bright sunshine; ideal conditions for ripening grapes. Sauvignons and Chardonnays from Limar?ave a lovely mineral character which is very appealing. Limar?eds are very intense, concentrated and elegant.
The great Carmenere riddle
Sunday, 27 April 2008
We’re getting to the end of the harvest now. It’s been long and hard but overall very good indeed. The very last grape to ripen is Carmenere and we will start picking from the beginning to the middle of May.
This is an indigenous Chilean grape variety – you won’t see it in any other place in the world, apart from perhaps Bordeaux, where it originally comes from.
Carmenere arrived in Chile during the late 19th Century. Chilean landowners had brought back cuttings from Bordeaux, along with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Then, in France, all the vineyards were struck by phylloxera, that vine eating bug that destroys the roots of the vines. Carmenere disappeared from Bordeaux altogether. Anyway, the weather wasn’t really warm enough, and it never produced great quality. Carmenere needs lots of bright sunshine and a long time to ripen.
Chile has grown Carmenere for over 100 years, but unfortunately it was forgotten about. Many wine producers had it in their vineyards but they thought it was Merlot. Now, the problem with that is Merlot is a very early-ripening grape variety, one of the first red grapes to be picked. That’s fine if it’s really Merlot you’re picking, but what if it’s actually Carmenere, a grape variety that needs much longer to ripen. A few years ago, Chilean producers were treating Carmenere as though it was Merlot, with poor results. The flavours were thin and green and the wines had a very pronounced aroma of green peppers. Finally, scientists correctly identified the difference between the two vines and Chile began a huge programme to label all vines in the vineyards.
Now, we know exactly which is which. There’s a subtle difference in the leaves and in Autumn, the Carmenere’s leaves turn red, which is beautiful. This means that Carmenere is now picked at the right time and the results are fantastic. Good Carmenere is very ripe and soft, with flavours of mocha and spice and absolutely no green pepper!
The bluffer's guide to winemaking
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Before the grapes get into the tanks, they go through a number of processes designed to ensure the quality of the finished wine. First, the grapes go onto a sorting table. This looks like a big conveyor belt and it vibrates so that all the unwanted leaves and twigs get shaken off and carried away. It’s quite a tedious job and very hard work, so a few years ago we rigged up some speakers around the winery to keep the sorting table team entertained. Some Rolling Stones or a bit of Salsa helps the day pass better.
Next, the grapes go into a de-stemmer which removes the grape stalks. Next time you are eating a bunch of grapes, try chewing the stalk. You’ll find it’s very tannic, like a very strong cup of tea. We don’t want this bitter tannin in the wine. Finally, the grapes are crushed. Again, we want this to be a gentle process, so we don’t crush the grape pips which also contain natural bitter tannins. After all that, we might do something called a ‘cold maceration.’ This happens mainly for the red wines, when we want to extract colour from the red grape skins.
We keep the temperature cold so that the juice does not start fermenting until we are ready. After all these processes the grape juice is pumped into tanks and the fermentation begins. We keep the winery very clean at all times, but particularly at this time, we are always washing the floor and all the equipment.
The harvest jigsaw puzzle
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
This afternoon, I had a meeting with Carlos, our cellar manager for Puente Alto. We were planning where the next load of grapes are going to go tomorrow. During the harvest period, we are dealing with thousands of tonnes of grapes and it’s very important that we have a tank for them to go to immediately. It’s a bit like doing a big jigsaw puzzle, working out when some tanks will be free and ready to receive new grapes.
Midnight harvest at Puente Alto
Thursday, 13 March 2008
A bit tired this morning. Last night we did a night harvest at our vineyard in Puente Alto. It sounds strange but there’s a very good reason for this nocturnal activity. We want to pick the grapes as fresh as possible, so depending on the weather, we can decide to pick at night, when it’s actually very cool indeed.
During the day, at this time of year, the sun can still be quite strong. Throughout the year, we prune and train the vine so that the leaves provide shade for the grape bunches and they don’t get damaged by the sun’s rays. Natural sun protection! But when you pick the grapes and put them in the collection containers, they do get exposed to the sun.
We finished up about 3.30am and I got about three hours sleep before getting back into the winery. We are already fermenting the Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay and I needed to check on the progress of several tanks. That means we have to taste samples from each one and analyse them in the laboratory. It’s a very intense time and we have to be really careful with each tank of fermenting wine. None of us are getting much sleep.
Start of the 2008 Harvest
Friday, 22 February 2008
The 2008 harvest has started!
We picked from some of our vineyards in the Casablanca Valley yesterday and it will take a couple of weeks to get all the grapes into the winery. I love this time of year.
It’s very busy but this is what it is all about. My cell phone is going mad, ringing every two minutes. It is vineyard managers calling me to tell me the chemical analysis of the grapes. When they reach the correct sugar levels, we know we can pick. If the weather is particularly hot during some days, we will then decide to do the harvesting at night when it is about 15 degrees cooler. That way, the grapes can be kept completely fresh until they get to the winery. The picked grapes go into quite shallow containers, so that they don’t get completely squashed. We want to keep all the juice inside the skins for now.
Vineyard Visit with Javier
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
An early start with Javier in the winery. We tasted from a large selection of barrels of Shiraz from the 2007 vintage, to see how these wines are coming along. Some of these red wines will spend around 18 months in oak barrels. Some of the barrels are brand new and some of them have already been used once or twice. This gives us a range of different flavours to play with in the finished wines. The new oak gives lots of spicy flavours, like cinnamon and coffee. The older barrels do not give too much in flavour and that helps us to keep the oak character subtle. In around November of this year, we will blend the wine from all these barrels together and bottle it, ready for release in early 2009.
In the afternoon, we took the pick-up and went to see a few of our red grape vineyards. One of my favourite vineyard managers, Luis, came to meet us. He’s worked with us for years and knows everything there is to know about this region. His dog, which is called Perro (dog in Spanish) tagged along and as usual, started eating the Syrah grapes off the vine! The grapes are already looking fantastic – already deep red in colour – but they have another two months of ripening at least. We probably will not start picking here until the beginning of May. The consistent climate is the best thing about Limari; it has such a long and perfect ripening time. We don’t have to worry about rain, unlike our fellow winemakers in many European vineyards.
El Triangulo vineyard
Saturday, 9 February 2008
First stop, El Triangulo vineyard in the Casablanca Valley. This is where we have a lot of top quality Sauvignon Blanc. I walked through the vineyards, tasting the grapes to see what stage they had reached. The flavours are fantastic this year – very intense with lots of gooseberry and herbal notes. The top of the vineyard is the warmest spot in the valley and here, the grapes are quite ripe already, with tropical, passion fruit notes. The blend of all these flavours will be delicious.
Back on the road. I stopped at my favourite road-side restaurant for a churrasco……a beef, avocado and tomato sandwich. The avocados are so good at the moment. Finally arrived in the Limari region around 5pm. Checked into the hotel – I’m trying out a new place called the Hacienda Santa Cristina and met up with Javier who is the winemaker at our winery, Maycas del Limari. We went to see a couple of vineyards before it got dark.
The Limari Valley is actually a desert and without irrigation, the only plants that can grow easily here are the cacti. But with irrigation, it can be a fantastic place to grow grapes. The climate is cool and the soils are ideal; full of minerals and rocks – good for drainage. The most suitable grapes for this region are Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay and Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Very impressed with what I saw today. The Sauvignon Blancs are going to be intense and full of citrus aromas and flavours with a kind of mineral character which is very typical from this region. The Chardonnays are already very concentrated with flavour and these are going to be amazing. Got back to the hotel and started my office work. 150 emails to check and I have to plan a presentation for the UK. I’m travelling there on Sunday for a week of meetings with buyers and journalists.
In Search of Great Whites
Friday, 8 February 2008
I'm just back from my summer holidays - two whole weeks at the beach with my family. Perfect sunny days, complete relaxation, great seafood and wine. It was super!
Now, I'm back at work and the white wine grapes will soon be ready for picking. My main job just now is to visit as many vineyards as I can to check on the quality of the grapes and to talk to all the vineyard managers about how to handle the grapes as they are picked.
In Chile, we have many great areas for making white wines and the best places are near to the coast. Cold air and sea fogs blow in off the ocean, keeping the air temperature low in the mornings. This allows the grapes to ripen very slowly and helps them stay crisp and fresh.
Tomorrow, I’m going to make the drive right up to the Limari Valley, our most northerly vineyards and winery and I’ll call in at some of our estates in the Casablanca Valley on the way up.
