Caliterra

Winemaker Comment

This outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon presents a youthful and solid lively red colour. Its intense aroma profile presents a very nicely interwoven combination of black pepper, anise, blackberries, and a touch of tobacco. A complete and well-structured palate with a tasty final balance takes this wine to a long-lasting finish.

Vintage Note

The 2005&2006 growing season was a cold, dry season. The accumulated heat summation measured in degree days (based on 10°C / 50ºF) between October 2005 and April 2006 was in almost all of the valleys lower than it was during the 2005 season and over the course of the past seven years.

The primary challenge of the 2006 vintage was the particularly long wait for each variety to reach proper phenolic maturity, which resulted in higher sugar levels in the grapes. As it was particularly cold in the Colchagua valley, the metabolism of the vines was much slower compared to normal years and the harvest started first at the end of April.
As the climatic circumstances were very favourable towards the end of the growing season and due to quality-oriented viticultural measures undertaken, the grapes were very healthy at the moment of harvesting.

Fermentation and Aging

The grapes used for our Tribute Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 were hand-picked into bins, destemmed, gently crushed, and transferred to stainless-steel tanks. Fermentation began at 28ºC / 82.4ºF, and the temperature was later lowered to prevent over-extraction of skin elements. The new wine then underwent 25 days of maceration to enrich complexity and achieve a nice, deep colour. The wine was aged for 14 months in 62% American and 38% French oak barrels, during which time it completed malolactic fermentation. The wine was fined and lightly filtered before bottling in August 2007.