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
Find these wines with wine-searcher.com
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