The Berlin tasting, London   
Tasted blind, how do Eduardo Chadwick's Chilean wines stack up against the world's best?
 

The Landmark Hotel, London, May 5 2009

This was an intriguing blind tasting that I’d been looking forward to for some time. I’ve written quite a bit about Eduardo Chadwick’s Berlin tasting, and the various follow-ups, elsewhere (see here, and also the official site, www.theberlintasting.com). In short, he’s to be congratulated by attempting to benchmark his wines with those acknowledged to be among the world’s best in such a public fashion.

His intent wasn’t to show that his wines were necessary better than the classics; merely that they belonged on the same stage. This London instalment of the Berlin tasting was significant because the UK has been somewhat hostile to the notion of Chilean icon wines, thinking that the Chileans were trying to run before they could walk.

The room hosting the tasting, at the Landmark hotel, was a large one; it was full of the great and the good of the UK wine trade. [Indeed if a bomb had hit, then a significant chunk of the trade would have been taken out in one go.]

One of the questions that I was really interested in is how obviously the Chilean wines would stand out for being Chilean. I reckon I can spot Chilean reds blind with a high success rate, yet in previous instalments of this tasting it seems that people weren’t doing this reliably.

It turned out to be very easy to spot the six Chilean wines. [The tasting was double blind, so we didn’t know which wines were included, or where they came from, or how many were Chilean.] I was sitting next to Tim Atkin and as we finished the tasting we conferred quickly on which we thought were Chilean: we were in full agreement, and turned out to be right. I’d say that if you were a good wine taster with broad experience, you’d pick out the Chilean wines in this tasting quite easily.

What of the other wines? Well, considering their reputations, they disappointed to a degree. Sassicaia 2005 was the most disappointing. Latour 2005 also disappointed – we tried from two different bottles and while it seemed a very good wine, there was something that wasn’t totally clean about either, making us think of low level cork taint. Lafite 2005 is currently oak dominated, and I really liked Margaux 2005 despite what seemed to be Brettanomyces character. 

After we’d tasted and handed in our cards, Peter Richards and Stephen Spurrier, as moderators, shared their opinions before the identity of the wine was revealed. 

 

So, here are my notes, as tasted blind. I’ve ranked them here by my score, and then in the final column given the overall group ranking which is based on us all indicating preference for first, second and third place.

 

My ranking

Wine

My note, as written blind

My score

Group ranking

1

Chateau Margaux 2005

Pronounced savoury, green olive, meaty, spicy edge to the nose. Very rich and ripe with forward blackcurrant and plum fruit. Almost Tuscan in character. Very rich, ripe and bretty on the palate with animal spiciness as well as dense, savoury, tannic fruit. Real impact here, and I like it a lot.

94

1

2=

Solaia 2005 Tuscany

Lovely savoury, gravelly depth to the pure dark fruits nose, which is refined, dark and a little meaty. Nicely complex and rich. The palate is smooth and concentrated with nice ripe, lush fruit as well as some gravelly depth. Lovely modern wine but with nice complexity and tannins. Italy?

93

3

2=

Opus One 2005 Napa, California

Sweet blackcurrant fruit nose with some spicy savouriness. Rich and spicy with some lavish oak. The palate is dense and savoury with good structure and nice spiciness. A forward modern style but still quite old-world in terms of its structure. Needs time.

93

12

4=

Chateau Lafite 2005

Powerful, forward sweet ripe blackcurrant fruit nose is lush with some chocolate and spice notes. Distinctly oaky, but this is sophisticated oak. The palate is dense and focused with roasted oak character combining with rich fruit. Quite a serious wine waiting to emerge here.

92

2

4=

Chateau Latour 2005

Savoury, slightly earthy edge to the nose. This is rich but balanced with ripe blackcurrant fruit and gravelly spiciness. There are some dark, almost meaty notes too. The palate is elegant and concentrated with some earthy notes under the taut dense fruit. This is Bordeaux. There’s perhaps a slight uncleanness though, which makes me think of low level cork taint.

92

8

6

Viñedo Chadwick 2006 Maipo, Chile

Smooth, elegant, pure focused blackcurrant fruit nose is ripe, lush and pure. The palate is dense with luch blackcurrant fruit. Nice complexity, but still distinctly Chilean.

91

5=

7=

Viñedo Chadwick 2005 Maipo, Chile

Very sweet lush blackcurrant fruit nose is ripe, forward and very Chilean. The palate shows attractive, accessible ripe fruit with a bit of spicy structure. But it’s in a distinctly Chilean style. Forward, focused, tasty.

90

11

7=

Don Maximiano Reserve 2005 Aconcagua, Chile

Sweet, lush, blackcurrant fruit nose is quite creamy and ripe with a hint of mint. Very Chilean. There’s a nice savoury olive-like character, though. The palate is big, super-ripe and concentrated. Very lush, very forward and very Chilean. Delicious but simple.

90

10

9

Don Maximiano Reserve 2006 Aconcagua, Chile

Sweet, lush pure blackcurrant fruit nose with a slightly spirity edge. Stylish and more-ish. Very Chilean. The palate shows ripe, forward blackcurrant fruit with very attractive fruitiness and good acidity. A lighter style.

89

4

9=

Seña 2005 Chile

Sweet, lush, forward blackcurrant fruit nose. Ripe and lush, and quite Chilean. The palate shows dense open fruit which is nicely spicy. Perhaps a bit of evolution here? Warm, rich and sweetly fruited.

89

5=

11=

Seña 2006 Chile

Ripe, sweet, forward blackcurranty nose with lush fruit and some spiciness. High quality Chilean? The palate is quite fruity and friendly with sweet blackcurrant fruit and some spice. Very Chilean.

88

7

11=

Sassicaia 2005 Tuscany

Lush, sweet, spicy nose with some oaky notes. Showing some evolution. It’s a bit hollow on the mid-palate with attractive earthy spicy noted as well as fading but ripe fruit.

88

9

See also:

Visiting Chile's wine regions (series)

Wines tasted 05/09  
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