Jamessuckling.com | JS 94
Published: Jun 17, 2022

Lots of finely roasted sweet spice and roasted sesame to the blackberries, cassis and iron, together with hints of blue fruit and cured meat. A medium-to full-bodied palate, filled with rather generous sweet berries. Fleshy, supple and savory with quite fine-grained tannins and a long finish. First year with 10% new wood. 81% cabernet sauvignon, 12% carmenere, 5% merlot and 2% cabernet franc. Already delicious, but can hold, too. 

The Wine Advocate | RP 94
Published: Aug 30, 2022
Drink: 2023-2030

The current release of their second wine is the 2020 Epu. It's selected from the same terroir and vineyard in Puente Alto, one of the most reputed places for Cabernet Sauvignon in Chile, but from the younger vines (five- to 20-year-old vines) and harvested a little earlier to preserve acidity and fruit. In the warm and dry 2020 vintage, the wine was produced with a blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Carmenere, 5% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc, usually higher in Cabernet and lower in Carmenere than Almaviva. It has red ripe berries, the textbook blackberries and cassis and some creamy oak. It's ripe at 14.8% alcohol and has mellow acidity, good freshness and balance, with a pH of 3.71 and 4.8 grams of acidity (tartaric). It matured for 12 months in French barriques, 10% new and 90% second use. The wine has a bright nose with a clean note of baked "morrón" peppers intermixed with red berry compote. It has a velvety plate with the luxurious texture of the modern Bordeaux, with abundant, slightly dusty tannins. It's approachable and round but should reward some time in bottle. This is a pretty serious Epu. 75,000 bottles produced. It was bottled at the end of 2021 and the first days of 2022. This is the second vintage sold through the Place de Bordeaux négociant system.


Winemaker

EPU, the name of Almaviva's second wine, means two in the language of the Mapuche, one of the main indigenous cultures of southern Chile. The symbol is a reference to the Tupu, an ornament which expresses fundamental aspects of the worldview of various ancient Andean civilisations. EPU comes from the same exceptional vines and terroir of Almaviva, Puento Alto, one of the coolest areas of Chile's Maipo Valley that offers the perfect conditions for growing Cabernet Sauvignon which is the heart of the blend. Modelled on the second wines of the most prestigious Bordeaux ch?teaux and produced in very limited quantities, EPU shares many characteristics of Almaviva, nonetheless, expressed through its own personality. Having forged its own personality along the years, Cabernet Sauvignon is predominant in EPU at more than 80% of the blend, while its proportion in Almaviva is closer to 70%, conferring the wine a different identity that is less creamy with more verticality than Almaviva. EPU 2019, the first international release of EPU, is the perfect introduction to the exclusive world of Almaviva.