Almaviva 2012

Almaviva was born from a 1997 handshake between Baroness Philippine de Rothschild and Eduardo Guilisasti Tagle of Concha y Toro — a deliberate act of transatlantic ambition to execute the French Château concept on Chilean soil: one estate, one bodega, one wine. That founding philosophy dictates every technical decision made here. The single estate sits in Puente Alto at the foot of the Andes, 620–650 m elevation, on classic alluvial fan deposits — loamy clay to 50 cm, then sandy loam, gravel, and rock — soils so poor and free-draining they force deep root penetration and concentrate phenolic intensity while the Andes' diurnal swings preserve acidity at high ripeness. Harvest is hand-picked into shallow bins, hand-sorted, and transferred by gravity alone — no pumps — into parcel-specific stainless tanks for cold maceration before alcoholic fermentation; malolactic fermentation occurs spontaneously, immediately before or after gravity-draining into barrel. The wine ages 20 months in French oak, 70–73% new, in the estate's Grand Chai vault. The defining transgression: deliberate inclusion of Carmenère — a variety phylloxera erased from Bordeaux and rediscovered in Chile — woven into a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant frame, producing roasted pepper, dark spice, and herbal depth that no Médoc or Napa equivalent can structurally replicate. The 2012 vintage, now over a decade in bottle, has resolved its tannin architecture into a composed, mineral-driven expression; drink through 2030.