1997 Almaviva

I tasted the 1997 Almaviva, the second vintage ever, with winemaker Michel Friou. At age 20, the wine shows a very classical profile with some notes of leather and cured meat, bringing a Bordeaux-like personality, with a developed bouquet. They eliminated the Brettanomyces-like notes from the wines in 2001, so there is a "before" and an "after"—and this is one of the old-school wines. I'm not a defender of those notes, and I usually find that they take over the wine and tend to also destroy the texture; but in certain cases the wines seem to age well, and this is a good example. Like 2007, 1997 was also considered a good vintage in Chile, unlike the years ending in seven in France. This was the first full vintage produced by Almaviva with Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere and Cabernet Franc produced by Enrique Tirado from Concha y Toro and Patrick Leon from Mouton and with Pascal Marty as the dedicated winemaker. It was a really average year in terms of temperature and rain, perhaps similar to 2015. The wine is certainly mature now and has a soft texture with fully resolved tannins. In a way, it reminded me of a 1995 Don Melchor I tasted last time, which had a similar profile to this—sleek, developed, polished and tasty. This is ready but should be able to hold for a few more years in bottle, although I doubt it's going to develop further complexity because I think this has peaked.