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The
wines of Chile
Part 7: Odfjell
Website:
www.odfjellvineyards.cl
We
arrived at the Odfjell winery in Maipo to be greeted by some rather
unusual looking horses. They are Fjord ponies, and they’d been
brought over to Chile by air. They’re actually quite beautiful.
Odfjell,
as the name suggests, has a Norwegian connection. Founded by Dan
Odfjell, who made his money from shipping, the winery is designed by
his son, Lawrence Odfjell, and architect. Lawrence also designed the
wineries at Matetic and Callina. 60% of the winery is below ground,
making it highly energy efficient. A gravity flow design minimizes the
need to pump wine.
Dan
Odfjell lives in the Netherlands, where he is involved in shipping and
freight terminals. The ships we are talking about are tanker-sized
freight ships with double hulls, which cost $70–100 million each.
Rotterdam is the biggest freight terminal in the world. He bought this
property in the 1980s initially as an orchard, but he didn’t really
like that business, so he switched to wine. The vineyards here were
first planted in 1992 onwards, and the winery was built in 1997 (first
vintage 1998).
Red
wine is the focus here, with grapes coming from three vineyards: this
one in Maipo, one in Cauquenes (Maule) and the third in Molina (Curico).
Production is 60–65 K cases. Paul Hobbs has been consultant
winemaker here since 1998, but winemaking is in the hands of Arnaud
Hereu (above).
Carignan
is a speciality here, and the first varietal Carignan was made in
2001. It’s harvested late, and potential alcohol levels can be as
high as 17 degrees, which makes fermentation tricky. ‘For the first
three years we had stuck fermentations and lots of wines with residual
sugar,’ recalls Arnaud. ‘Every year we have to fight to finish
fermentation, but we are getting better at it.’
‘In
Chile sugar levels go up quickly, so to get tannin maturation you get
high sugar levels. This results in high alcohol, so you extract a lot
of stuff: you have to be sure that everything going into the tank is
ripe or you get greenness.’ He adds that at the end of fermentation
there is 15% alcohol and a temperature of 32 °C. ‘It’s very
extractive.’
‘We
work the first third of fermentation a lot when there’s low
temperature and low alcohol.’ A cold soak at 12 ° for four or five
days is typically employed.
He
cites Carmenčre as the most difficult variety to work with because of
its tendency to develop brettanomyces.
Oak
use is 60% French, 40% American. 300 new barrels are purchased each
year. Arnaud doen’t like central European oak. ‘Each year we do
barrel trials with coopers,’ he says. ‘We have discovered some
really good coopers who aren’t well known. Many Chilean producers
have been buying by reputation.’ Arnaud is not a big fan of topping
up so there is often air space in the barrels. He tops up every 15
days, whereas 4 is more common. The barrels often get a flor, but this
isn’t a problem. ‘I don’t maintain a constant temperature and
humidity,’ he says. ‘I believe wine has to follow the seasons;
wine moves.’
He
has used alcohol reduction. ‘I did some experiments dealcoholizing
the wine and it is better at 13.5% than 14%,’ he reveals. For this,
for a 40 K litre blend, 5 K litres were dealcoholized to 2% and then
blended back. He’s extending this experiment to more wines.
With
Paul Hobbs, Odfjell went looking for old vine fruit and found Carignan,
Cinsault and Cabernet Franc. They were surprised by the quality, and
rather than using it in blends, they ended up making varietal wines.
Arnaud
reveals that they had big problems with Brettanomyces until 2002. They
had brought barrels from another producer and these introduced brett
into the cellar. This wasn’t detected until the wine was in bottle.
Now the problem is solved, although Carmenčre remains a bit of a
problem.
The
wines
Odfjell
Armador Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Attractive sweet blackcurrant fruit nose with some heat and a
spicy edge. The palate is attractively fruity and spicy with firm
savoury tannins. Complex and savoury. 90/100
Odfjell
Armador Carmenčre 2005
Very ripe, rich, dark spicy nose. Really intense and bold. The
palate is focused and quite balanced with lush fruit and a lovely
spicy savoury character. 91/100
Odfjell
Orzada Malbec 2005
Quite high toned, a hot nose with sweet, pure liqueur-like fruit.
The palate is darkly fruited and quite elegant with some earthy notes.
Attractive and spicy, this is quite a serious effort. 91/100
Odfjell
Orzada Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Very distinctive liqueur-like nose of pure blackcurrant fruit.
Ripe with high alcohol. The palate is smooth with nice purity and
elegance. Some earthy spiciness in the background. 90/100
Odfjell
Aliara 2004
A blend of Carmenčre and Cabernet Sauvignon. This was a
complicated year with rain ahead of harvest. Brooding smooth dark
fruits nose with a liqueur-like character. The palate is dense and
smooth with lovely integrated oak and some nice spiciness. A serious
effort. 92/100
Odfjell
Orzada Carignan 2001
100 year old vines. Smooth, lush perfumed nose with some
Brettanomyces evident: leathery, earthy notes. Complex and intense.
The palate has some lovely earthiness and attractive spicy red fruits.
Lovely wine. 92/100
Odfjell
Orzada Carignan 2002
Smooth and dark but with a bit of mustiness (there was a
tribromoanisole problem this year) on the palate. Dense, firm and
spicy, with a subdued quality to the fruit. Tight and savoury.
Odfjell
Orzada Carignan 2003
Lovely sweet dark chocolatey nose is quite brooding and smooth.
The palate has lovely freshness and earthiness with a delicious
spiciness. Firm, complex, spicy and tannic. A serious savoury effort.
92/100
Odfjell
Orzada Carignan 2004
Very smooth, varietally true, lush focused dark fruits on the
nose. The palate is ripe but restrained with concentrated dark fruits
and firm tannins. Really lively and bold with good acidity. A massive
wine. 93/100
Odfjell
Orzada Carignan 2005
Lush, over-ripe liqueur-like nose with smooth dark fruits. The
palate is fresh and dark with great purity and focus without being
heavy. Fresh with some spicy tannins. Striking and interesting. 92/100
Odfjell
Orzada Carignan 2006
Rich spicy dark fruits nose, with lots of ripeness and a bit of
roasted oak. The palate is focused and pure with quite a bit of oak
evident supporting the pure dark fruit. Tannic and bold. 91/100
Odfjell
2005
15.5% alcohol. Sophisticated, smooth and lush with some alcohol
and sweet dark fruits. The palate is very rich and bold but also quite
tannic and savoury with good acidity. The alcohol comes across a bit
too much. Pushing the limits of balance. 91/100
Odfjell
Cabernet Franc 2004
Very smooth, fresh and quite elegant with pure red and black
fruits. The palate is midweight and nicely poised with some tannin.
90/100
Chile
series:
Wines
tasted 01/08
Find
these wines with wine-searcher.com
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