Chile
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Emiliana Coyam, Colchagua Valley
A wine that is named after the oak forests which surround Emiliana's magical Colchagua home, Los Robles. Coyam is the ultimate expression of this estate and is a field blend of their best selection.
This is an elegant and complex wine with lifted notes of cherries, plums, blueberries, and blackberries, along with refreshing hints of black pepper, leather, and pencil lead. The palate is rich and packed with complex fruit character with fresh acidity. Good concentration and structure that draws out the persistent finish.
This is a complex wine that needs intense pairings such as grilled red meats, including wagyu, beef, or lamb, served with potatoes au gratin, rice, or spicy sauces. Decant before drinking and serve in Bordeaux-style glasses at 18ºC.
The soil contains a mixture of clay and sand, with the depth of the soils 2 - 3 metres, optimal for red varieties. The summer was dry. The bountiful rainfall allowed us to begin irrigating late in the season. Veraison and ripening were delayed by 10 days. The harvest began in the last week of March. The wine is made from a blend of 37% Syrah, 33% Carmenere, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Carignan, 4% Malbec, 4% Garnacha, 3% Tempranillo, 3% Petit Verdot, 3% Mourvedre. The first stage, reception, began with a selection on a conveyor belt to remove any leaves and damaged bunches, etc. The selected bunches were destemmed, and the individual berries were selected by size via a vibrating table for better precision. The grapes were then gently dropped into stainless steel tanks for fermentation with native yeasts at 24º–26ºC with a program of pumpovers determined by oenological criteria. The new wine then remained on its skins for a 5-day post-fermentation maceration at 22º–24ºC, for a total maceration time of 20–25 days. Malolactic fermentation occurred naturally in oak barrels. The wine was aged for 14 months, during which time it stabilised naturally without any treatments.
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Tabalí Talud Cabernet Sauvignon
This wine has a very elegant and fresh nose with lots of black ‘Fruit Pastel’ notes that gives it loads of character. The French oak makes a subtle contribution, lending the wine great complexity. In the mouth it is very concentrated with excellent, smooth, silky and firm tannins. This is a well-balanced, fresh wine, packed with fruit in which the notes of blackcurrants, black cherries and spices are especially notable. It has a long and very persistent finish.
The DOM vineyard, regarded as one of the top 5 Cabernet regions in Chile, is a stunning site nestled into the western zone of Maipo's Coastal Mountain range. The vineyard is planted on a south facing slope of heavy colluvial deposits and the Mediterranean climate along with the site’s aspect makes it cooler and fresher than other parts of the valley. This means the fruit is less exposed to the sun during the ripening period, allowing the depth of colour and flavours to develop. Grapes are handpicked at their optimum ripeness, which in winemaker Felipe Muller’s eyes, is when there is good phenolic ripeness with a nice balance of natural acids. Once picked, the grapes are placed carefully into 15kg cases to minimise skin splitting, then bunch selection and sorting takes place. After destalking, the grapes are fermented in small stainless steel tanks at a controlled temperature, allowing for separate small batch vinification. This wine was aged for 18 months in French oak barrels, a third of which are new, before being bottled. In its first vintage, the 2014 it won best Maipo Cab in Chile's acclaimed Descochados wine guide, scoring 94 points.
Great with lean red meats, slow cooked beef or beef ragu.
