Casas del Bosque Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2012
Bright ruby red in colour, on the nose this wine exhibits lifted notes of dark plum, bramble, black cherry and just a touch of spearmint. In the mouth opulent notes of blackcurrant, expresso bean and raspberry dominate. A well integrated oak backbone backed-up by rich, elegant tannins combine to give a long finish.
91 pts Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar (JR)
Brilliant ruby. Sexy, spice-laced aromas of cherry, blackcurrant and lavender, with a hint of pipe tobacco in the background. Juicy and precise, displaying good energy and depth to its sappy dark fruit flavors. Becomes smokier and spicier with aeration and finishes with strong thrust, impressive persistence and dusty, fine-grained, late-arriving tannins.
Following harvest the grapes were destemmed and then crushed to tank at which point the must was warmed and inoculated with selected yeasts and fermented during 10 to 15 days with temperatures peaking at 32ºC/90ºF. During fermentation the vats were pumped-over three to four times daily in order to extract the ideal amount of tannin and colour. Following the completion of fermentation the must was subjected to an additional 5 days of post fermentation maceration (to give a total of 19 days total skin contact). The wine was then pressed off skins and put to a mixture of new and used French oak barrels (55% new/45% second the third use) for 17 months during which time it was racked and returned three times. After bottling the finished wine was carefully aged for three months prior to release in order to increase complexity.
Vineyard: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Maipo Valley cropped at an average of 6 tons per hectare (2.4 tons per acre).