The highest scoring red wine and Wine of The Year in Tim Atkin MW's Chile 2022 report, 98 pts
This wine was produced exclusively with Malbec grapes from the Río Hurtado vineyard, which is in the Limarí Valley right in the Andes mountains, just 45km from Argentina. At an altitude of 1,600 metres above sea level, this singular mountain vineyard is one of the three highest in Chile. The vineyard is on an east-facing slope and only receives sunshine in the mornings and early afternoons. There is therefore great thermal amplitude - the difference between daytime and night-time temperatures can even exceed 20ºC. In winter the vineyard can be completely covered with snow while rain is falling lower down in the valley. This is a very special soil, because the volcanic rock (andesite) decomposed right there and slowly formed a thin layer of soil. It is very fractured and this enables the roots to venture down and explore the whole geological profile. This lends the wines quality, elegance, complexity and, above all, an unrivalled typicity. The harvest began in the first week of April, when the grapes had reached the optimum phenolic ripeness. The clusters were manually selected before going to the destemmer, where the grapes were separated from their stalks. The grapes passed once more through a manual selection before being fed into small stainless steel tanks where they fermented at 22-27ºC. The wine was aged in French oak barrels for 18 months.
