Wine Region: Curicó

(2022) From vineyards close to the ocean and cooled by sea breezes. There is cherry and red plum freshness but a meatiness too, a dry ashy and chalk quality to the tannins and acidity adds to the savoury freshness.

(2022) Golden colour and a fine Gewurz expression with the Turkish delight and old rose aromatics, ripe figgy and musky fruit. The palate is dry and lightly spicy, plenty of vibrant fruit, clean and fresh, but weighty in texture, finishing with plenty of vibrant acidity.

(2021) As you may guess from the name, a high altitude wine, from coarse volcanic soils 1,245 metres up in the Andes. It spends six months in oak. Lots of classic plum and chocolate here, a nice savoury note of dried blood or game, and perhaps that high altitude adding a gently leafy, herbal nuance too. Sweet and fleshy on the palate, there's plenty of ripe fruit here, but a nicely grainy touch of tannin and chocolate/mocha note marries with good, sour cherry acidity to balance very nicely.

(2016) A fine, traditional method and award-winning sparkling Pinot from Miguel Torres' Chilean operation, this has a creamy mousse and crisp apple aromas and flavours, a light touch of floral character adding extra interest, the finish dry but easy and approachable, in a very stylish wine.

(2010) The name means Cape Horn. 80% Curico Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cachapoal Syrah and 5% Maule Malbec. Eighteen months in mostly new French barrels. Lots of Sandalwood and incense aromatics, with a dusty, blueberry and blackcurrant fruit. The fruit is fresh on the palate, with a bit of cherry fruit and very silky tannins. The palate has lovely sour orange acidity and lots of grip, the Malbec perhaps adding a little extra damson skin and plumy darkness.

(2010) Curico fruit. Not hugely expressive on the nose. With a bit of fat, lemony fruit and touch of apple skin. The palate is crisper and more bracing than the varietal, with more of that lemony bite and a touch of salty minerality.

(2010) Quite gamy and earthy, with cedary, focused black fruit. Spicy, but again quite tight and has even a touch of herbal aromatics. The palate follows through with that spice and herb-edged character. Very nice fruit and balance, and a great sense of freshness here.

(2007) Lovely aromatics, lots of cedar and Sandalwood, with very refined black fruits and a real sense of elgance. On the palate this has fine, racy, elegantly definted black fruit with a real black cherry bite, plenty of crispness and vibrancy with fine tannins and good acidity, but a silky, mouthfilling txture and compsed fruit quality.

(2007) Mostly 80-year-old Maule Carignan with Syrah. Fine, rich, ripe black fruit, and very ripe and dark without being jammy. Very fine, coats the palate with a hint of raspberry and cherry brightness and biting acidity, and then that infill of broader, juicier blackcurrant and racy, fine tannins gives a full, but nicely delineated and easy to drink quality.

(2007) Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, this is a wine I tasted with Brett from barrel in 2002, when it was as yet unnamed, but of superb quality. Now, after four more years in barrel, it is meaty, rich and full, with very plush, concentrated aromatics and flavours. The palate it just flooded with plum and mulberry and suede-like texcture of fine, solid black fruit. Beautifully plush tannins. Fantastic quality and very fine, rolling, tobacco-tinged character. Outstanding.