Errazuriz Winery
The flagship is the 2007 Viñedo Chadwick, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon cuvee. A glass-coating opaque purple color, it offers up a brooding bouquet of sandalwood, pencil lead, scorched earth, violets, exotic spices, blackcurrant, and blackberry. Full-bodied and dense on the palate, this is an opulent effort with layers of multi-dimensional flavors, plenty of ripe tannin, with all components in harmony. This lengthy effort will see its 30th birthday in fine form. Eduardo Chadwick has taken this wine on a world tour to blind taste it against the great wines of Bordeaux. His confidence is well placed.
Seña was originally a joint project of Eduardo Chadwick, owner of Errázuriz, and the Robert Mondavi empire. Since the demise of Mondavi, Seña is entirely under the control of Chadwick. The fruit is sourced from Seña’s biodynamically farmed vineyard with the 2007 Seña made up of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Carmenère, 12% Merlot, with the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It puts forth an enthralling bouquet of sandalwood, underbrush, exotic spices, incense, floral notes, blueberry, and blackcurrant that borders on kinky. Already remarkably complex on the palate, with layered flavors, a plush palate feel, and precision balance, this beautifully rendered offering will evolve for another 6-8 years and provide a drinking window extending from 2016 to 2032.
The 2007 Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve is composed of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Syrah that spent 20 months in new French oak. A glass-coating opaque purple color, it surrenders an enticing nose of toasty new oak, graphite, scorched earth, cinnamon, clove, violets, blueberry, and blackberry. On the palate, it reveals a suave personality that combines elegance and power. Impeccably balanced, it has the structure to evolve for 4-6 years and should provide pleasure through 2027.
The 2007 KAI is made up of 86% Carmenère, 7% Petit Verdot, and 6% Syrah aged in new French oak. Purple/black in color with a dramatic perfume of wood smoke, pencil lead, chocolate covered peppermint, earth notes, violets, blackcurrant, and blackberry. This leads to an opulent offering that combines elegance with power. Layered, with superb intensity and volume, and a lengthy, seamless finish, it is likely to have a lengthy evolution of 6-8 years and provide prime drinking from 2015 to 2027.
The so-called Icon wines begin with the 2007 La Cumbre, a 100% Syrah cuvee aged in 100% new French oak. A glass-coating opaque purple color, it exhibits an already complex, expressive nose of pain grille, pencil lead, mineral, licorice, smoked meat, blueberry, and blackberry. Dense, rich, and plush on the palate, this impeccably balanced, lengthy offering will evolve for 3-4 years and deliver a drinking window extending from 2013 to 2022.
Robert Parker Ratings
Parker was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He is an honors graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, with a major in history and a minor in art history. He continued his education at University of Maryland, Baltimore, graduating in 1973 with a Juris Doctor degree. For over ten years, he was an attorney for the Farm Credit Banks of Baltimore; he resigned in March 1984 to devote his full attention to writing about wine.
In 1975, Parker began writing a wine guidebook. Taking his cue from consumer advocate Ralph Nader, Parker wanted to write about wine without the conflicts of interest that might taint the opinions of other critics who also make a living selling wine. In 1978, he published a direct-mail newsletter called The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate, which was renamed The Wine Advocate in 1979. The first issue was sent free to mailing lists Parker purchased from several major wine retailers. Six hundred charter subscribers paid to receive the second issue, published in August 1978.
Parker received worldwide attention when he called the 1982 vintage in Bordeaux superb, contrary to the opinions of many other critics, such as San Francisco critic Robert Finigan, who felt it was too low-acid and ripe. While there is still debate about the timelessness of the vintage, prices of 1982 Bordeaux remain consistently higher than other vintages.
More than twenty years later, The Wine Advocate has over 50,000 subscribers, primarily in the United States, but with significant readership in over 37 other countries. While other wine publications have more subscribers, The Wine Advocate is still considered to exert a significant influence on wine consumers' buying habits, particularly in America. New York Times wine critic Frank Prial asserted that "Robert M. Parker Jr. is the most influential wine critic in the world."
A lengthy profile of Parker entitled "The Million Dollar Nose" ran in The Atlantic Monthly in December 2000. Among other claims, Parker told the author that he tastes 10,000 wines a year and "remembers every wine he has tasted over the past thirty-two years and, within a few points, every score he has given as well." Yet, in a public blind tasting of fifteen top wines from Bordeaux 2005—which he has called "the greatest vintage of my lifetime"—Parker could not correctly identify any of the wines, confusing left bank wines for right several times.
In addition to writing and tasting for The Wine Advocate, which is published six times a year in Monkton, Maryland, Parker has been a contributing editor for Food and Wine Magazine and BusinessWeek. He has also written periodically for the British magazine The Field and has been the wine critic for France's L'Express magazine, the first time a non-Frenchman has held this position.
Among media that focus on the influence and effects of Parker on the global wine industry are the 2005 unauthorized biography The Emperor of Wine by Elin McCoy, the 2004 documentary film by Jonathan Nossiter Mondovino, the 2008 book The Battle for Wine and Love: Or How I Saved the World from Parkerization by Alice Feiring, and the 2010 French language bande dessinée comic book, Robert Parker: Les Sept Pêchés capiteux.
© All Rights Reserved To Viña Errazuriz S.A.
