Vintage Report

APPELATION

Apalta Valley, Colchagua, Chile.

BLEND

66% Carmenère, 19% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon.

HARVEST

Organic and Biodynamic vineyard management. Organic certified vineyards by CERES (Germany). Biodynamic certified vineyards by DEMETER (Germany). Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon Pre-filoxera old vines planted in 1920 not grafted. Morning sun leaf removal and green harvest to fine tune yields. Hand harvested from 23th February until 26th April 2012, depending of the grape variety.

GROWING CONDITIONS

This 2012 vintage started with a hot and dry spring, followed by a sunny summer with cold nights that gave us big thermal amplitude, a key factor for quality. No rain was recorded during this harvest season, and high temperatures during the summer and fall resulted in earlier than normal ripening and harvest. Concerning the temperatures in spring, september was exceptionally hot. It was a small summer in the middle of the spring. October and november were just a little bit warmer and permitted a nice flowering of our grapevines. Summer started warmer than usual in december. However cool nights refreshed the ambient, raised air humidity, producing more color in the berries and preserve their natural acidity. The ripeness came earlier than usual. We harvested the red varieties 3 weeks earlier to achieve the right level of ripeness.

VINIFICATION

100% hand de-stemmed in our Clos Apalta Winery. 100% native yeast in French oak small vats. Skin contact up to 5 weeks. 100% of the blend in 225 Its new French oak barrels for 24 months. Not fined, cold stabilized or filtered. Bottled in March 2014, 5,084 cases of 12 bottles.