(2020) The Higuera vineyard in the more southerly region of Maule is the source of this wine. Maturation is 85% in French oak, but no new oak, and 15% in untoasted oak casks where it spends 12 months, plus six months more in bottle before release. Maule vineyard planted in 1994. Beautifully aromatic, real perfume here soaring from the glass, super ripe and creamy berries, spices and a kirsch-like lift, perhaps a little hint of the pyrazine greenness, but only a hint. Flooded with fruit on the palate, ripe, fleshy, chocolate-smooth tanins, and absolutely delicious to drink. There is spice and some grippiness in the finish, in a powerful and luscious wine.

(2010) In my report from Chile published earlier this year, I stated that I'd found the few Carignan wines around to be hugely impressive, so I was intrigued to see this in the Santa Carolina line-up. It comes from 80-year-old vines in Cauquenes in Maule, and has a beautiful nose, with a creaminess to the plush blueberry and damson fruit, an exotic lift of incense and a touch of violet. On the palate this has beautiful structure and elegance: it is a crisply-delineated wine, the fruit confident and focused, the tannin and acid balance juicy and taut, and the wine finishing with juicy depth but real elegance too.