Casas Del Bosque ‘Gran Bosque’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
Intense ruby in color, with a nose of cassis, raspberry, black cherries, graphite and a minty herbal note characteristic of Chilean Cab. After decanting, spicy notes of cedar and coffee beans come into play. The palate is an evolution of flavors, all of them delimited by the tannic structure, which is ripe and elegant. A hint of acidity shines through and gives the wine great cellaring potential.
While Casas del Bosque may resonate for the cool climate varieties they grow in coastal Casablanca, the truth is they
make some amazing Cab. Gran Bosque represents the winery´s ultimate interpretation of the variety, which sticks to a simple recipe: great grapes make great wines. The fruit is sourced from some of the best sites in Maipo Valley, and goes through a second selection process back at the winery. After that, it goes through a very traditional vinification process, where the winemaker tries to keep the clarification and filtration to the bare minimum in order to give the wine body, structure, character and opulence. 2019 comes from a particularly hot summer in Puente Alto, where most of the grapes for this wine are sourced, which resulted in an outstandingly concentrated and intense Cabernet Sauvignon.
93 pts. Joaquín Hidalgo – Vinous
90 pts. James Suckling
Silver – International Wine & Spirits Competition
The grapes for this wine come from the stony soils you find on at the foot of the Andes Mountains, in the southern part of the Maipo Valley. The place is perfect for Cabernet Sauvignon as its poor soils provide good drainage towards the Maipo river, and the sun exposure ensures a perfect maturation process. The vines were cropped at yields of 7 tons per hectare, or 2.8 US tons per acre. On arrival at the winery, the grapes were first subjected to a whole cluster selection. Destemming and an individual berry selection followed, before being gravity fed to small open-top tanks. The must was inoculated with selected yeasts and fermented during 20 days with temperatures peaking at 32ºC/90ºF. Following the completion of the fermentation the wine was pressed off its skins and put to a mixture of new (60%) and second use (40%) French oak barrels, where it was then aged for 18 months. The wine was bottled on July 2021, and total production reached 10.800 bottles of 750ml.
After a winter with 40% less rains than a normal year, and a very warm growing season, the grapes were handpicked between March 25th in the hottest areas, and April 2nd on the coldest ones. For Cab, the overall size of the berries was smaller than usual, resulting in lower yields (-10% on average) of higher quality fruit.
