Almaviva

Château Rotchild and Viña Concha y Toro. One French and one Chilean winemaking giant. The best of both countries began working together in 1997 when Baroness Philippine de Rothschild (president of Chateâu Rothschild) and Eduardo Guilisasti (president of Viña Concha y Toro) signed an agreement to create a premium French-Chilean wine. The result is Almaviva, one of the most renowned red wines in the world.

Almaviva has been a success ever since its first vintage in 1996. Their grapes grow at 650 metres above sea level in the 65 hectares that the partners cultivate in the Maipo Valley, in the highest area of the city of Puente Alto, in central Chile. This vineyard was planted in 1978 with vines of 5 different varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Here, at the foot of the Andes, the temperature varies greatly, with very warm days and cold nights and mornings. This difference allows the anthocyanins, the grape compounds responsible for giving them colour, to be shed more easily, resulting in red wines with an extraordinary colour.

To make Almaviva, the grapes are manually harvested in 10 kilo boxes. When they reach the winery, the grapes are selected, destemmed and then crushed. With the help of gravity they are then put in tanks. These tanks are kept at a low temperature at first for maceration (where the aromas and colour are extracted), then alcoholic fermentation will begin, culminating in a second maceration. Finally, and again with the help of gravity, Almaviva is racked into French oak barrels, where it undergoes malolactic fermentation and is aged for 18 months. The skins and seeds that remain in the tank are pressed.

The magic and the final touch of Almaviva is the responsibility of the winemaker, who decides what percentage of each batch to use in the blend or coupage. A real spectacle.