Tasting Notes
Robert Parker 99
There are three Carignan/Cariñena wines from the same vineyard in Truquilemu in 2018, and the 2018 Vigno comes from a section further down along the creek where there’s terrific drainage and thus low yield and concentration. It’s Carignan with smidgens of País and Monastrell in the field blend, the grapes grown by a mall farmer by hand and horse with traditional methods of dry-farming, uncertified organic for 75+ years. Like all the rest, it fermented in open-top vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in used barrels over two winters. None of these wines are about the process, they are about the place and the year. In 2018, the wine finished with 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.2 and seven grams of acidity, parameters that talk about a wine with moderate ripeness and vibrant freshness, from a cooler year in a cool part of Maule. 3,336 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2020.
Anticipated maturity: 2021-2030
Vinous 93
The 2018 Carignan VIGNO is a field blend of Carignan and Monastrell from old vines grown in an unirrigated vineyard in Empedrado, Maule. Rested for a couple of winters by its creators Pilar Mirnda, Derek Mossman and Alvaro Peña, it is purplish-red in the glass and begins with fragrant orange zest and cherry aromas, followed by secondary notes of saffron and dried fruit. Relaxed and nimble in style, with fine tannins and good acidity; oaky notes reverberate at the back of the mouth. An edgy red with attractive acidity.
Anticipated maturity: 2021-2028