Caliterra

Winemaker Comment

The colour of this wine is deep dark with purple and violet gleams. A fruity aromatic flow distinguishes this variety when produced in a blessed weather like Colchagua’s. In aroma’s, we can feel black plum and nectarine, followed by essences such as tobacco leaves, tea and cedar. On the palate, the wine is complex, elegant, soft and distinguished.

Vintage Note

Harvest 2007 will be remembered through out the country as one of the best. For Caliterra, it has been the best ever.

As the weather reports show, this season allowed us to manipulate and wait for ripeness as much as we wanted. We did not have rain showers as an obstacle to determine the precise moment to harvest. This year we presented a new approach for our vineyard, which consists of equally working the heterogeneity of the different sectors. With the help of high end technology, we were able to distinguish each individual plant from the other according to the level of detail desired to get homogeneous fruit.

Carmenere grapes were harvested and after a few days several sweet lots were under fermentation process. We can notice that the spicy characteristics from Carmenere have been replaced by ripe fruits such as dry plums and cherries.

Fermentation and Aging

In this vintage 2007 we started using the Polygonal Harvest System, this process allows us to obtain first class grapes. With the use of new technologies systems and satellite infrared photos, we are able to find the level of maturity from each vine and group them in specific polygons. With this information, harvest is done following the specific polygons allowing us to harvest homogenous fruit at optimal ripeness.

As a collateral effect of this detailed differentiation at the vineyard, there has been a decrease of the alcoholic level in the wines because by crafting only optimal ripe fruit in the stainless steel tanks, sugar levels have decreased and consequently alcohol levels have diminished.

Fermentation started at 28º Celsius and was later decreased, with the idea to avoid over extraction of skin elements. The wine aged in oak barrels, 70% American and 30% French, for a period of fourteen months. In this phase, malolactic fermentation took place.