Sena 2020 750ml









The 2020 Seña is a bold, elegant Bordeaux-style blend from Chile’s Aconcagua Valley, led by Cabernet Sauvignon with Malbec, Carmenere, and Petit Verdot. It’s packed with juicy dark fruit, savory spices, and hints of tobacco and olives, balanced by bright acidity and silky tannins. This wine is polished and complex, showing great depth and freshness despite a warm vintage — perfect for aging but already very enjoyable.
Jamessuckling.com | JS 98
Published: Dec 28, 2022
Complex, with savory, spicy character, showing tobacco, salted plums, olives, black cherries, cassis and a hint of white pepper on the nose, followed by a refined, savory, balsamic accent. A full-bodied Seña with juicy fruit chiseling into the tight, extremely fine-grained tannins. Long, bright and still elegant from this warm vintage. 53% cabernet sauvignon, 25% malbec, 15% carmenere and 7% petit verdot. A wine with lots of harmony now, but better to drink from 2025.
The Wine Advocate | RP 97
Published: Apr 6, 2023
Drink: 2023-2035
The 2020 Seña is a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Malbec, 15% Carmenere and 7% Petit Verdot (a little higher in search of acidity) from grapes harvested early, the second week of March, and fermented mostly in stainless steel and 10% in concrete eggs. It has a moderate 13.5% alcohol and good freshness. It's subtle and layered, not only fruit but with more spice; it has polished tannins and very integrated oak after 22 months in barrique, 78% new, and with 10% of the volume in large Stockinger barrels. The warmer years seem to be nicely managed, so that it's not reflected in the ripeness but is more a matter of texture and quality of the tannins; in the warmer years, like 2017 or this 2019, the wines have a little more grip, but these are definitely finer than those from the 2017 vintage. This wine has intensity and complexity, with no mintiness or herbal notes; it's spicy and juicy, with energy and depth. It has structure, color, stuffing and acidity to develop nicely in bottle. 100,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2022.
I tasted the latest releases from Seña, now including a second wine, for their release through the négociants form Bordeaux in September 2022. I am including those notes here again to put them in the context of the rest of the wines from Chile and for completeness of this article.
Decanter | D 95
Published: Jul 5, 2022
Drink: 2025-2043
Beautiful fruit expression, clear and well defined, lovely texture, concentrated but smooth and round. This is full of sweet, juicy ripe fruits with a chalky, creamy texture underpinned by lifted acidity. It's bold and clearly powerful with a depth of ripe blackcurrants, black cherries, plums and raspberries alongside notes of freshly-cut flowers, herbs and sweet spices; rosemary, violets and cinnamon. Tannins are fine and well integrated and this feels well worked with finesse. Beautifully expressive - I like the styling here, everything feels very polished and purposeful. 7% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Ageing 22 months in French oak barrels (78% new) and 10% foudres.
Closure: Natural Cork
Alcohol: 13.50%
Body: Full
Grapes: 53% Cabernet Sauvignon 15% Carménère 25% Malbec
Jancisrobinson.com | JR 16.5+
Published: Sep 8, 2022
Drink: 2024-2034
53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Malbec, 15% Carmenère, 7% Petit Verdot.
Pure plum and cherry fruit on the nose. Seña now has real polish and refinement having mastered the ripeness of fruit to avoid herbaceous and green notes in the wine. Ripe and fine tannins melt into medium-bodied red and black fruit, which has a real zing and freshness. Sweet spices bolster the fruit and bring a more seductive profile to the wine, though it remains modest and compact throughout, with a long, clean finish.
Sena.cl
They named it Seña, a sign to the world that Chile was able to produce world-class wines, expressing the uniqueness of the Aconcagua Valley and changing the way the world thought about Chilean wine.
Seña is a unique Bordeaux-style red blend with a very Chilean soul. Its predominant variety is Cabernet Sauvignon, while Carmenere clearly ties it to Chile. Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot round out the blend.
2020 VINTAGE NOTES
Warm, early season.
Dense, powerful and rich wine with rounded tannins.
This warm vintage complemented with a precise irrigation enabled a rapid and even bud break on a regular date, showing early signs of a great wine. The warm temperatures allowed for good development in the vineyard, with early flowering in the spring. December and January continued with more moderate temperatures, allowing veraison to proceed beautifully under very healthy and homogeneous conditions.
The milder conditions during February, influenced by the cool winds from the Pacific Ocean, helped preserve the acidity and aromatic compounds in the grapes.
Temperatures rose again in March, resuming the season’s trend of high temperatures, determining a rich and opulent style for the wine.