Vina Alicia Morena 2008
This is a dark red garnet wine, of good structure and excellent body. It has dark cherry or blackcurrant maturity. Time gives it cedar or cigar box undertones. Some blueberry and chocolate aromas can be found. Its tannins are tangible and generous. Cabernet Franc supplies raspberry, currant leaf and pebble aromas.
92 pts Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar
Good deep red-ruby. Complex nose offers currant, graphite, milk chocolate, tobacco leaf and violet; in a distinctly Left Bank style. At once fat and juicy, with lovely sappy depth and sweetness to the berry and mineral flavors. Most impressive on the smoothly tannic, very long and seamless finish, where the impression of graphite minerality reverberates.
86 pts Wine Enthusiast (MS)
Rustic smelling, with a rubbery, tannic mouthfeel and flavors of roasted plum and berry. Let this wine aerate to show its best.
Harvest takes place in autumn, when the very ripe grapes have acquired the bloom of time. It is carried out manually in 12-14 kilo cages kilos to avoid berry damage and preserve them from contamination. At this point the vines have undergone two bunch selections: the first after flowering and the second when the berries colored, to cull out those malformed, defective or lacking adequate color.
Upon arrival at the winery, the third selection of fruit bunches is carried out manually over special tables to separate immature grapes, dry or withered, before proceeding to remove stems. This operation is performed by a machine placed across the opening of the fermentation vessel.
First there is a lengthy maceration, lasting 25-30 days according to vintage, to obtein the best of the grapes. Fermentation temperature is 30-32°C to enhance anthocyanin extraction.
“Pumping up “ and “Punching down” procedures are performed daily. Fermentation and maceration of these varieties are carried out separately, given by the fact of maturity points differs.
Once alcoholic fermentation ends, it is set in casks, also separately, to achieve malolactic fermentation: 100 % in new French Oak casks. When this stage concludes, casks are cleaned and wine is kept in the same ones for 4-5 months more, to elicit all its character.
Then, “assamblage” is carried out and from then on they age together for 12-14 more months. Cask ageing produces important effects in the wine. Color develops, aroma becomes bouquet, clarification is favored, its tannins are enriched and tannic expression becomes more rounded. Bottling: The wine is kept 60 days in a “cold chamber” at very low temperature for stablilization. Then is bottled without filtering, and remains at less 12 months in bottle before being released to the market.
Wine will express all his potencial and will show complexity and elegance. A spicy touch is drawn out, together with a cigar box aroma and a hint of grape stalks. The time spent in bottle enhances flavor and bouquet.