There is such a thing as having too much of a good thing and when you do there is a tendency to take things for granted. I mean so what if your land is blessed with a sandy type soil that survived, phylloxera, the great wine plague that almost wiped out all the wine grapes. So what if you were blessed with a country that span the North South latitude plain that allowed you to take advantage of micro changes in the weather area by the choosing to go North or South. Yup. Too many blessings can make a winery a tad bit complacent and too reliant on mass-produced wines that are not too exciting but decent.
But what if....
A winery chose to step up to the plate and decided to raise the standards and to believe in their own sense of identity and legacy of quality...Enter Viña Errazuriz's Don Maximiano line of wines. Named after the winery's founder Don Maximiano Errázuriz, who decided to build the winery in the Aconcagua Valley, 100 km North of the capital, Santiago.
His Mottto, " From the best land, comes the best wine."
A man committed to quality but beset with tragedy ( His wife, Amalia, died shortly after giving birth to their only son Rafael. So sad! Go read about it at www.errazuriz.com ), Don Maximiano Errázuriz spared no expense building this operation that soon began sourcing from the best vineyards in the Aconcagua, Casablanca and Curicó Valleys.
The company is now tended to by the fifth generation of his family, Eduardo Chadwick. Interesting note, in 2005, Decanter magazine named Eduardo Chadwick one of the top 50 most influential people in wine. Eduardo was instrumental in getting the Don Maximiano quality to its soaring heights today.
At the famous Berlin Tasting of 2004, the company's icon 2000 and 2001 vintage wines, Viñedo Chadwick, Seña and Don Maximiano, smashed the ultra premium barrier with their stunning blind tasting victory over the other super sluggers of Cabernet based wines from other famous wine growing regions, Château Latour, Château Margaux and Château Lafite-Rothschild. They also beat the Italian cult Cab wines, Tignanello , Sassicaia, Solaia and Guado al Tasso solidifying Chile's reputation as a super premium wine producer.
The tasting was at Zebra Square near Jalan Tun Razak, KL as you turn off to go to Kampung Pandan.
Here is a line-up of the wines we tasted.
Although I have sold Viña Errazuriz wine before when I worked the wine retail circles of Texas, I have not had the pleasure of tasting their higher end stuff. So when the chance came in the form of an Invitation to taste 4 vintages from their library collections of Don Maximiano line, you can bet the Wine Zen got a little giddy.
Couldn't help taking a selfie...
The seminar was guided by Mr. Nicolas Happke, Viñedo Chadwick's (Errazuriz's parent company) are manager for South East Asia. Definitely someone you want to come listen to when he talks about high end Chilean wines.
This my tasting video of the Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 1989
The Wine Zen Tastes Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 1989
Tasting Score Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 1989
Nose = 8 Taste = 7 Body = 7 Tanin/Acidity Balance = 8 Finish= 8
Notes: Good nose of Black Cherry and tobacco leaf. Flavours from the nose translate well onto the palate in a nice medium bodied frame. The tannins and acidity are still balanced enough to drink but the wine won't get any better with further ageing. Clocked in at a 30 second on its cool cherry finish. Drink and enjoy its gifts now! Some bitter-sweet dark chocolate with this wine would be heavenly!
Total points: 88 points
Next is my tasting video of my favourite wine of the day, Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 1999. This wine is the precursor of the great 2000 that would kick butt at the Berlin Tasting 2004. It was gorgeous so I can only imagine the 2000 vintage.
The Wine Zen tastes Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 1999
Tasting Score Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 1999
Nose = 8 Taste = 8 Body = 7 Tanin/Acidity Balance = 8 Finish= 8
Notes: The nose was elegant notes of cassis, blackberry and was still hiding something else. The palate translated the flavours well with an additional hint of ripe plum. The mid palate was good and rich but never becoming overtly heavy. The balanced tannin and acidity saw to it that the flavours served in a medium bodied frame. The finish was reminiscent of classified St Julien. A good 35 to 40 seconds of pure bliss.
This wine was my favourite of the day.
Harmony Bonus Points: +1
Total points: 90 points
At this point I have to apologize as I had a little accident at the tasting that caused a huge mess on my shirt and table which ruined my shooting of the Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 2010 and the Kai 2010 Carmenère. But here are their tasting scores anyway.
Tasting Score for Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 2010
Nose = 8 Taste = 7 Body = 7 Tanin/Acidity Balance = 7 Finish= 8
Notes: Here it was year where the blend was altered to include local Carmenère and Syrah which I found to be quite unusual. But this was the winery's decision to make their wines more approachable younger. Black fruits mingled with blueberries and cherries on the nose. Leading to a much more juicy, fruity mid-palate bursting with red and black cherries intermingled with a little spicy notes. Medium bodied with mellow, low acid balance. Finishes respectably at 30-35 secs. Its a good effort and tasted well but my least favourite of the day. Especially if it was following in the footsteps of the 1999.
Harmony Bonus Points:
Total points: 87 points
Tasting Score for Kai Carmenère 2010 ( Kai means plant in aboriginal Chilean.)
Nose = 7 Taste = 8.5 Body = 7 Tanin/Acidity Balance = 8.5 Finish= 8.5
Notes: As far as Carmenères go I rarely find one I like but the Kai was a damn good one. Herbs and bittersweet chocolate slowly express themselves from the glass after much coaxing. (The wine is still a baby and needs more time). On the palate it surprises with red fruits and flowery notes laced with the herbs. Excellent balanced tannins and acidity in medium bodied package. This could have very easily gone wrong and overdone but it prevailed all the way through showing even more complex nuances of pencil shavings, dark berry and Indian spice on its 35 second finish.
Harmony Bonus Points: + 0.5
Total points: 90 points
At the end of the tasting, the Chilean Ambassador to Malaysia, His Excellency Mr. Christian Rehren makes an impromptu thank you speech to all the participants.
Great, educational tasting. Thank you Asia Euro for the invite.
Notes and Instructions to the Wine Zen Method of Evaluation:
Assuming the wines tasted are not flawed due to cork taint, heat damage or other obvious defects,
50 points is awarded automatically. The wine is then judged based on its:
a) nose
b) taste
c) body
d) balance of tannin & acidity
e) finish or length (time measured 20 -25 seconds being a standard good finish)
Each tasting dimension is scored from a scale of 1-10. For example, if a wine was more full bodied, it would tend to have a higher score of 8-10. If it were a lighter bodied wine it would receive a lower score of 1-4. Adding up the scores together should give you a total of points out of 100 for a maximum (which very, very rarely happens).
The Twist
Please note that sometimes wines are meant to be leaner or lighter or more elegant or less tannic or acidic. Does that mean they are poorly made, absolutely not. So I have incorporated an extra tasting aspect called Integration. After breaking down the wine to into its tasting components and evaluating them individually, I use this last category to see how all the components work together. Harmony is what I will be looking for. Extra points can be given from this category to make up for shortage of points from the other categories to give a more accurate representation of the wines.
Odds & Ends of Evaluation
Please note that although the wine appearance can be an important aspect. I have found that with modern wine making, the old adage of "you can't judge a book by its cover" rings very like a church bell. A wine can have a gorgeous colour but not deliver the quality and vice versa. So when judging the wine, appearance is used to assess if the wine is obviously flawed and if it is worthy of consumption.
In this writers humble opinion, finishes are generally the tell tale signs of a well-made wine. Nose and taste can be muted due to youthfulness of the wine or can be manipulated but you can't hide the flaws of a wine in the finish yet. An abrupt or short finish reveals a shortcoming in fruit quality and like an abrupt conversation can be quite rude. A good finish tends to be a gradual process allowing the wine flavours to fade gently from your palate. The best finishes are not only long and gradual but have what I call "shift time" ability, where the wine makes you forget how long you have been tasting it.
Please let me know if you have any comments or thoughts on this post. I'd love to hear from you!
No comments:
Post a Comment