Errazuriz Don Maximiano Founders Reserve

Description

Errazuriz Don Maximiano Founders Reserve is a tribute to the founder of Errazuriz and is the producer’s flagship wine. The estate was founded in 1870 when Don Maximiano Errazuriz planted his first vineyards at Panquehue in the Aconcagua Valley – 100km North of the capital. Today, the tradition of quality lives on with Don Maximiano’s descendant Eduardo Chadwick. Eduardo is the fifth generation of his family to be involved in the wine business. The Don Maximiano vineyard is located in the Aconcagua Valley, a region that features an extended dry season with moderately warm summer days cooled by soft afternoon breezes from the Pacific Ocean. The vineyard was planted between 1978 and 1993 on hillside with north and north east exposure on soils with a thin layer of decomposed granite over soils of colluvial origin, which ensures good drainage.

The grapes for the Errazuriz Don Maximiano Founders Reserve are hand harvested into small 12kg boxes to ensure that they arrive at the winery in best condition. Grapes are carefully selected on a sorting table, where all plant matter, such as leaves and stems were removed to ensure the fruit character in the wine. The grapes were fermented in stainless steel tanks. There are three daily pump overs of the grapes to achieve the right amount of extraction. Maceration lasted from 16 to 28 days at 24°-28°C depending on the development of the individual batch. All of the lots were aged for approximately 20 months in new French oak barrels, during which time fining and stabilization occurred naturally.

To best express the terroir of the Aconcagua Valley and of the Don Max vineyards, small amounts of Cabernet Franc, Shiraz and Petit Verdot were added to the final blend to maximize complexity and quality – Don Maximiano 2014 is a blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Carmenere 9% Malbec and 5% Petit Verdot. It is aged for 20 months in French oak barrels, 70% of which are new.