Caliterra

Winemaker Comment

This wine displays an impressive intense, deep, and vivid color dark as ink. The nose shows great typicity, with copious ripe red fruit, some blueberry, and a meaty touch of sausage on the finish. A very sweet palate to start that gives way to a flavorful wine that is highly stimulating and persistent. Its acidity, at the edges, allows for a long aging potential of up to a decade or more.

Vintage Note

The Colchagua Valley had a warm 2007–2008 season with a recorded heat summation of 1,700 degree days, 6.4% higher than the previous year (1,598 degree days) and 2.4% higher than the historic average (1,660 degree days). The different phenological stages (flowering, fruit set, veraison, and ripening) were affected by the cold, dry winter (the average monthly temperatures were lower than the previous season and had more accumulated cold hours as well as winter frosts), which caused budbreak to occur 10-15 days later, but more uniformly, than in the previous season. The high temperatures recorded in January, February, and March quickened the pace of ripening, leading to an early harvest with a significant decrease in yields among red varieties.

Fermentation and Aging

After harvesting, a significant percentage of the grapes underwent a pre-fermentation cold soak to emphasize color and extract smooth tannins. Fermentation temperature was held at 28°C (82.4ºF) on average and later reduced to prevent over-extraction of the skins. The wine was aged for 14 months in 32% American and 68% French oak barrels, during which time malolactic fermentation also occurred.