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2001
The 2001 harvest was a waiting game which peaked in intensity in mid April when we harvested over 50% of the reds in a two-week period. The waiting game continued in the winery with lots of sluggish ferments in about every variety except Carmenère which blasted along to our delight, because it was the last variety to pick. Overall I think we have some excellent wines in the winery this year although the blends will be smaller than what we expected.
The growing season started off with a strange weather pattern that mixed very cool and very hot days. Early summer weather of November through January was warm with hot spells. In February we experienced a heat wave that stopped berry growth. March had overall very good ripening conditions. We had a 9mm rain in the Curicó Valley in late January with no effects on ripening. In late March it rained 7mm in the Aconcagua Valley. The next rainfall was in mid April with 7mm falling in Aconcagua, 9mm in Maipo and 16mm in Curicó Valley. Our Max Reserva quality fruit was picked before the first rain in Panquehue. A week later another storm that did not touch the Aconcagua Valley brought 5mm of rain in the Maipo and Casablanca Valleys and 16mm in Curicó Valley.
Every vintage has its mysteries and this vintage was the sugars. Although we had for the most part optimum ripening weather from February through April with a small to medium size crop, we had very slow sugar accumulation in most varieties in most regions. It seemed that the grapes would ripen 12° alcohol potential and then just stop for a couple of weeks to a month. The effect of this extended hang time is that most of the reds have very soft tannins and ripe flavours. In the white wines we have ripe flavours with lower alcohols than previous vintages.
Aconcagua Valley
In the Aconcagua Valley it was an excellent year overall, especially for Merlot and Syrah. In general, the crop was very small with yields of 4 to 8 tons per hectare. This was the first year of production from our Las Vertientes vineyard in the Aconcagua Valley. The vineyard produced an average of 4 to 5 tons per hectare with excellent Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. It is interesting to note that ripening at Las Vertientes was at least two to three weeks later than in Panquehue and had less rain fall during the vintage. These wines will give us more blending options for our Max Reserva and Estate wines in the future.
Casablanca Valley
The harvest in Casablanca started in March. Ripening was very slow in the valley. There was some 1% botrytis clusters in a couple of sections of late ripening Chardonnay, but in general the fruit came in with lower alcohol potential than previous years which I see as a positive. The Sauvignon Blanc of Casablanca is better every year. I think we have more body and weight in the wines and still retain the classic aromatic aromas of Sauvignon Blanc. As for Pinot Noir our La Escultura vineyard is producing wonderful Pinot Noirs.
Rapel Valley
We have started to source fruit in the Rapel Valley to produce a Merlot Cabernet blend under the Errázuriz label. The Rapel Cabernets have lots of red berry and cherry flavours with good acidity. The Merlots have beautiful blackberry and coffee notes for the blend.
Curicó Valley
The 2001 vintage started as always with our morning harvest of El Descanso Sauvignon Blanc from Curicó. The wine has classic lemon and melon aromas and flavors. The new sections of clonal Merlot have come into production and are now aging in barrel. These new sections will give us more blending options for our Estate Merlot. The older Merlot/Carmenère blocks at El Descanso were harvested in late April through the first week of May. They have the classic blackberry and coffee aromas with a rich mouth feel.
Edward Flaherty
Viña Errázuriz Winemaker
Panquehue, May-2001
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