If the 2014 meant a tremendous change in terms of style towards fresher fruit, this 2015 feels like a revolution. The harvest was completed in March, ensuring vibrant, tight fruit in a rather warm year. 25% was aged in used oak and 15% in foudres, which has supported the fruit´s clarity, freshness and tension. Until this 2015 we didn’t know that Alto Maipo could offer this level of liveliness and elegance. A true surprise.

Based on 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Vinedo Chadwick Vineyard, aged 22 months in 73% new French oak (15% was in foudre), the 2015 Vinedo Chadwick is an incredible effort that has both elegance and richness. Notes of crème de cassis, graphite, wet stone-like minerality, and plenty of leafy herb characteristics all emerge from this medium to full-bodied, seamless, gorgeously polished red. It’s already drinking nicely yet should cruise in the cellar for 10-15 years.

I also tasted the 2015 Viñedo Chadwick from a warm and dry vintage that resulted in very healthy grapes that were picked earlier than ever. The parameters are remarkably similar to the 2014, and the winemaking and élevage were also virtually the same, fermentation in stainless steel and aging in French barriques (73% new) and with some 15% matured in a Stockinger oak foudre. As I saw in many other 2015s, this is the most elegant and refined vintage I have seen of this wine. With ultra-refined tannin, the wine is dry, very clean, not minty at all, with very good tension and length, with a chalky, tasty, almost salty finish. Of course, the classical notes of cedar wood, black peppercorns and tobacco are there, but in a very subtle way. Super elegant. 11,493 bottles were filled in February 2017.

100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Reductive drainage aromas. Tight palate, youthful black fruit. Weighty, smoky, rubbery. Pretty harsh at the moment. (RH)

Tasted blind. Mid, deep crimson. Damsons and just a little lacking focus. Picked slightly late but with a green note not unlike Carmenère. Not much fun at this stage though clearly set for the future. Just a tad raw now. (JR)