MW Chile trip in pictures

Day 2: Las Majadas – a hotel and conference venue in the Maipo was the setting for the second day of the tour, where the day began with a seminar climate change, led by Dr Olga Barbosa from Chile’s Austral University, who outlined how the wine industry could play an important role in preventing a mass species extinction.

After coffee and cake, we had a tasting of the ‘extreme’ wines of Chile, and then a presentation from MOVI (Movimiento de Viñateros Independientes), followed by a tasting and picnic in the gardens of Las Majadas (meaning ‘sheep pen’, which was somewhat apt considering Wines of Chile was herding 30 MWs through the Maipo).

The ‘Santa Rita Experience’ came next, starting with a tour of the wine group’s estate in the Maipo Andes sub region of Alto Jahuel, where Sebastián Labbé, winemaker for the company’s top wines, including its icon label, Casa Real, poured us a range of samples atop this rocky outcrop.

He also spoke of a massive replanting scheme for almost 500 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon at the estate, telling db, “It is definitely the most important single project with Cabernet Sauvignon in Chile.” Due to the political unrest in the country preceding and during the visit, the MWs were accompanied by private security, and hence these figures among the vines. 

Two seminars ensued, one considering Chile’s top wines over a 20 year span, and the other on Cabernet Sauvignon sub-zones, led by Concha y Toro’s Marcelo Papa and Santa Rita’s Labbé.

Among the wines sampled were Almaviva 1998, Casa Real 1995, Montes Alpha M 1996, and Casa Lapastolle Merlot 1999, compared with current releases from the same producers, in a tasting designed to show not only the age-worthiness of Chile’s top labels, but also the stylistic changes over the past two decades.