Almaviva 2010

When Baroness Philippine de Rothschild and Eduardo Guilisasti Tagle formalized their joint venture in 1997, they imposed a rule that neither parent company had ever applied in Chile: one estate, one bodega, one technical team, one wine — the French Château concept transplanted to Puente Alto. The 1996 first vintage predated the winery itself, but the principle has never wavered.

The estate sits at 620–650 m elevation at the Andean cordillera's foot, on classic alluvial fan deposits: loamy clay to 50 cm, then sandy loam, gravel, and rock. That stony poverty forces deep root penetration, while the Andes' diurnal swings preserve acidity and aromatic precision at ripeness levels that would flatten wines grown on richer valley-floor soils.

Fruit is hand-harvested into shallow bins, hand-sorted, and transferred by gravity only — no pumps — into parcel-specific stainless tanks. Cold maceration extracts color and aromatics before alcoholic fermentation; malolactic occurs spontaneously, immediately before or after gravity-draining into barrel. Aging runs 20 months in French oak, 70–73% new, in the estate's Grand Chai vault. Only ~50% of total vineyard production is selected for the final blend.

The 2010 vintage predates the detailed vintage notes on record, but the structural signature — Cabernet Sauvignon dominant, with Carmenère threading roasted pepper and dark spice through a mineral, Andean-fresh frame — is the irreducible identity no Bordeaux or Napa peer can reproduce. At over a decade of age, the tannins will have integrated fully; drink through 2030.