The grapes were hand-picked at their optimum maturity for full flavor profiles. They were kept cool and whole cluster pressed to obtain the finest must. Fermentation took place in stainless steel tanks at 13 to 15°C (55°-59°F).

TASTING NOTES:
Bright honey-gold in color. Fresh tropical fruit, pineapple, peach, nectarine, and citrus appear on the nose with a hint of banana. Very fresh on the palate.

Variety: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2007
Origin: Central Valley (Cachapoal Valley and Coastal Maipo Valley)

PREBOTTLING ANALISIS
PH: 3,27
Total Acidity: 3,33 (gr/l sulfuric acid)
Alcohol: 13,5
RS: 2,1 gr/l

TASTING
Color: Deep red with purple shadows.
Nose: Intense, ripe red fruit typical of Apalta wines. Plums & cherries integrate well with the delicate oak touches of sweet spice, nutmeg and vanilla.
Mouth: A generous attack is followed by a pleasant and smooth mid palate. The finish is persistent and the overall structure is vivacious and well balanced. Ready to drink now or cellar for several years.

Tasting notes:
Spectacular ruby red color. The fruit-forward nose recalls ripe cherries and plums with a subtle touch of spice and pepper.
The palate starts swite, moves on to full fruit expression, and end with flavorful tannins and a long finish.
This wine is goog convination with pastas, ripe chises and read meats.

In this privileged valley, the Cachapoal Wine Route has transformed in an incomparable tourist destiny that takes the travellers directly to the heart of one of the Chilean wine zones of major prestige in South America. The exploration of the vineyards, the visits to its impressive warehouses, the direct contact with out-standing enologists, the gastronomic tasting, the walks astride and the excursions to historical places of the zone, have done of the Cachapoal Wine Route a really unforgettable experience.

The warehouses that shape this one without equal group are: Lagar de Bezana Vineyard, Casa Porta Vineyard, Chateau Los Boldos Vineyard, Anakena Vineyard, Casa Lapostolle, Altaïr Winery and Vineyard, Casas del Toqui Vineyard and Gracia de Chile Vineyard. Also you can visit newly inaugurated bottles Factory; Saint – Gobain Envases.

TO TASTE AND TO LEARN
In the beautiful Garden of Varieties of the Anakena vineyard, you will discover to the feet of its grapevines the differences of every vine-stock, defined by the land and climate of the region. To taste Anakena’s wines its pergolas placed in the heart of the valley, it is unique experience to understand the passion and the wine elaboration

WINES AND CHILEAN GASTRONOMY
The vitality of the New World receives the visitors in the Gracia and Casa Porta vineyards, where they wait to his visits to delight them with exquisite plates cooked with noble ingredients that in perfect harmony are accompanied on its more prestigious wines.

RURAL ROAST IN A VINEYARD
With the whole nostalgic and quietly of a traditional Château, you will enjoy a rural roast in company of the best wines of Château Los Boldos vineyard, in a magnificent quincho located in the middle of the grand plantations.

CAVALCADES DAY AND NIGHT
The natural marvels that make a detour to the Altaïr Vineyard invites them to visit its facilities as enjoying the surroundings, is for it that this vineyard counts with tours and excursions that go little more there of the precordillera, leading them to knowing the cosmos in full moon or the valley in its extension, enjoying a rich luncheon in height.

Ideal to Serve at 8-10°C with fish, ceviche, abalone, squid, prawns, white meats or as an aperitif.

HARVEST AND PRODUCTION
Once reached the good maturity, second week of april the grapes at harvest should be cool, in the range of 10 to 16° C. If not, must cooling is required. The grapes are crushed in a roller crusher wich destems before crushing. Tartaric acid (grapes natural and principal acid) may be added at this stage, if required, to ensure that the ph of the juice is in the range of 3.2 to 3.6 also are added pectic enzymes to increase color and aromatic extraction.
The fermentation tank is filled with the crushed grapes. the crushed grapes are benefit from contact between the juice and the grape skins for 48 to 72 hours in low temperature (under 15 °c). this technique, increases the aromatic extraction and the color extraction. the juice is then inoculated with a selected pure yeast culture. Fermentation is carried out in stainless steel tanks between 22 and 26 °c during 8 days. pumping over by taking the juice from under the cap of skins and irrigating the skins in an intermittent manner.
The wine is left on skins for three to four days after fermentation has finished or when our winemaker considers that the required amounts of color, flavour and tannin have been extracted. during post - fermentative maceration stage, the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation for action of leuconostoc oenos bacteria, this bacteria is endemic in our vineyard, and its addition is not usually required, and malolactic fermentation ussually occurs naturally. after malolactic fermentation , the wine is allowed to settle and is then racked under carbon dioxide protection (co2) to remove the gross lees. at racking, sulphur dioxide is added to provide between 20 and 35 milligrams per litre free depending on the ph of the wine.
To remove phenolics and bitter tannins is used fine gelatin or albumen. the wine is cold-stabilized by chilling to between -4°c and -2°c. finally, the wine is filtered with diatomites earth. the bottling is carried out in
monoblock gai, with inert gas protection. before the filling, the wine is filtered with pad filtration.

COMMENTS OF THE ENOLOGIST:

Colour
Red ruby with tints purple, clean and brilliant.

Aroma
The wine shows intense aromas to berries, cherries and soft notes to menthol

Palate
In the palate it presents good structure with soft tannins and good persistence.

WINE AND FOOD

To serve with red meats, roast beef, pastas with sauces of meat or accompanying mature cheeses as gruyere or camembert.

The Cabernet from this producer has been very good, which is why this particular bottle was such a disappointment. The nose has some mysterious chemical notes overriding cherries. There’s a whiff of burnt oak as well. The first attack of the palate suggests good texture and ripe fruit, but that’s replaced very quickly with more chemicals, burnt oak, and something resembling a pile of burning tires. The finish is pleasantly dry, considering the ripeness of the wine, but the chemical flavors linger unpleasantly.

As mentioned, I’ve liked wines from this producer before. I’ve liked this vintage before. I think one of two things is going on here. First and more likely, as devotees of the church of two buck chuck can tell you, when you’re dealing with wines that are made by the tankful, there can be a huge amount of variation from lot to lot and bottle to bottle. Which makes it all the more amazing when a huge production wine like Ch. St Jean’s Cingue Cepage is selected as “Wine of the Year” by the leading Wine Porn Magazine. In this case, maybe Santa Rita uses oak chips in stainless steel tanks to “barrel age” this wine, and maybe somebody burned the chips that went into this particular tank. Secondly, one of the criticisms that wine geeks level against Trader Joes, perhaps fairly, is that goods are almost by definition distressed before they hit the shelves, so maybe the winery sends their wine to TJ’s once they have accidentally left 100 pallets for a week on a railroad siding during 90 degree weather.

I know that for some readers of this blog, vintage seems like a trivial concern. How much different can the 2004 and the 2005 of a certain wine be? When it comes to large-tank producers, that’s a good point. Winemakers strive for consistency year-to-year, and may even blend some wine between vintages to achieve it. You can make a case that non-vintage is the way to go at some price points, in order to achieve uniform quantity. OTH, weather and other factors can cause huge differences between vintages - and sometimes even between tanks. There was a story not too long ago in the L.A. Times ( I think) about two-buck-chuck aficionados being so attuned to the variable quality of each tankfull of the swill, that they would buy one bottle, taste it in the parking lot, and come back for more if it passed muster. And think about it — it’s an amazing technical achievement to make the entire run of a 50,000 case wine, coming as it does from thousands of different barrels - all taste the same. It’s not like there is one big tank you can use to blend wine all that stuff.

BTW -sometimes, I really wonder. Not that long ago, I heard one winemaker jokingly tell another how simple it would be to swap the 2000 labels on several barrels of Napa Valley Cabernet with 2001 labels. Now this was clearly a joke, but the best jokes start with a grain of truth, don’t they?

The 2005 Casillero Cabernet is decent, if unexciting. The nose features redwood chips, cassis, & blackberry pie. The wine is simple and juicy in the mouth but a touch astringent, leading to a clean, dry finish.

I don’t have a bottle of 2004 laying around to compare it with, but my feeling is that the 04 was a little brighter and more polished than the 05. Still, this is a solid value from a reliable producer.

Tasting notes:
Berries and earth bouquet
Nice fruit core on the palate, a lot of layers unfold
Very dry finish for Merlot