2018 Vina Almaviva Puente Alto Chile 750 ml

“For the last 10 years, vintage after vintage, Almaviva vineyard has been quietly, consistently establishing a track record as one of the greatest wine producers in Chile, if not all of the world,” declared James Suckling, before honoring the Viña Almaviva as “Wine of the Decade.” 

The 2018 proves that Almaviva deserves that title. It earned 98 points from James Suckling, and a best-ever 96 from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, which called it “one of the finest ever produced” at the winery. This is a bottle that stands with its Napa Valley and First Growth Bordeaux brethren as one of the most regal red wines in the world. 

Almaviva was founded by Château Mouton Rothschild’s Baroness Philippine de Rothschild in what the magazine calls the “luxury” subzone of Puente Alto. It’s where Château Margaux veteran Michel Friou brings classical French technique to sumptuous, rich Bordeaux varieties grown on the highest terraces of the Maipo Valley. 

The results have been nothing short of astonishing, and 2018 yielded a revelation of a wine that’s one of the First Growth-pedigreed winemaker’s favorites ever. Pouring purple-black, it presents a gorgeous aromatic overture after an hour in the decanter: blackcurrant, black plum, blueberry, mint, mocha, baking spices, and freshly-picked wild herbs burst from the glass. Ripe and generous while maintaining freshness and lift, it’s got taut, tightly knit tannins providing a perfect canvas for black cherry, loganberry, savory herbs, camphor, baker's chocolate, and exotic spices. Full of delicious youthful vigor right now, it shows the structure and vitality that will allow it to improve slowly over the coming decades. 

Most of the Wine Access members who bought our first Almaviva offer might be thinking long term, but the ones who couldn’t resist opening a bottle have given the young wine a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. As long-time enthusiasts of the wines of Almaviva, we were blown away by the elegance, complexity, and unique combination of world-class focus and restraint the 2018 already shows. This is a wine that deserves space in your cellar—one that combines the freshness and balance of Bordeaux, the power and concentration of Napa, and the unique character of its Chilean home.

In 1997, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild of Pauillac First Growth Château Mouton Rothschild teamed up with Chile’s Concha y Toro to realize a grand ambition: to produce a Grand Cru Classé wine from the chilly, elevated terraces of the Maipo Valley.

The Rothschilds had already pulled off a visionary viticultural feat in the New World over a decade earlier, when they teamed up with Robert Mondavi to create Opus One, which would go on to become the most famous winery in the Napa Valley. For Almaviva, the Baroness assembled a brilliant team, headed by the late Patrick Léon (Mouton Rothschild, Opus One) and Enrique Tirado, to tend to 98 acres of vines. The venture wowed critics from the start, with Robert Parker declaring the debut vintage “Soft, rich, and multidimensional.” 

Today, another veteran of Bordeaux’s First Growths—Michel Friou, formerly of Château Margaux—has taken the winemaking torch, presiding over vines up to 38 years of age. Located at the Maipo Valley’s highest point, Puente Alto offers ideal conditions for the cultivation of Bordeaux varieties. The poor, rocky, alluvial soils lend the wines both mineral sophistication and, thanks to low pH levels, richness and elegance. Cold winds swooping down off the snow-frosted Andes cool the vineyards, making for a much longer growing season than in neighboring regions, allowing grapes to ripen slowly to perfection. 

2018 was a cooler season in Chile, which caused later budbreak, later ripening, and enabled a slow, unhurried harvest that accentuated what Almaviva is famous for: an exquisite balance between ripeness and freshness that’s apparent the moment you open the young wine, and will pay dividends over a period of decades. 

Almaviva is the new benchmark for power and elegance in the Southern Hemisphere, and it stands with the great cellar-worthy wines from Bordeaux, Napa, and beyond. Serious collectors, don’t miss out.