Viñedo Chadwick: Producer profile & top wines

Patricio Tapia, South American wine expert and Decanter World Wine Awards judge, looks back at the creation of this Chilean wine and picks out his top 10 wines from a complete tasting of every vintage produced...

In the family home, in the Alto Maipo, there is a room specially reserved for all of Alfonso Chadwick’s sporting achievements: photos, trophies, medals; memorabilia from a life spent playing polo.

The fourth generation owner of Bodega Errázuriz, Alfonso bought this property in 1945, already planted with vineyards – the source of Fond de Cave, Chile’s most expensive red wine at the time.In 1968, the family sold part of the land to Concha y Toro, who today produce two of the most important Chilean Cabernet-based wines using parcels of fruit from their vineyards here; Don Melchor and Almaviva.

In 1992, following Alfonso’s retirement from polo, his son Eduardo persuaded him to replace the family’s polo field located in the grounds of the house with a 15 hectare vineyard planted to Cabernet Sauvignon.

Since its first harvest in 1999, Viñedo Chadwick has joined the exclusive group of premium Chilean Cabernet blends. It is named in honour of Alfonso, who passed away a year after the vines were planted, in 1993.

• See also: Eduardo Chadwick named Decanter Man of the Year 2018

Andean style

The Chadwick vineyard is located in Puente Alto, at the foot of the Andes at an altitude of about 650 metres, on alluvial soils on the north bank of the Maipo River.

The three wines mentioned that originate from here offer an ‘Andean’ style of Cabernet, moderated by the fresh influence of the mountain range that often produces reds rich in herbal and spice notes.

Of the three, Viñedo Chadwick is the youngest – Don Melchor’s first vintage was 1986, and Almaviva’s was 1996.

Changes

With winemaker Francisco Baettig and Eduardo Chadwick, we met in the family home, facing the Chadwick vineyard, for a complete and unprecedented vertical tasting of all the Viñedo Chadwicks from 1999 to 2015.

The first lesson is the most comforting – all the wines share that adorable and elegant structure of tannins; firm but at the same time soft, tight and tense. And those herbal notes act as a fresh seasoning.

One of the most important changes occurred with the arrival of Baettig in 2004. The winery was completely cleaned, to eliminate any trace of contamination in the barrels.

‘What we did was to make sure that the wine only showed the aromas and flavours of its vineyard, not those of the winery,’ says Baettig.

Gradually, Baettig started harvesting earlier in search of fresher fruit, also reducing the presence of wood.

This work begins to be noticed from the 2011 vintage, a cool year ideal for a fresher, crunchier Cabernet, and culminating in the 2015, a warm vintage of great density and voluptuous maturity, but which in Chadwick shows a juicy, refreshing facet. Tasted blind it seems to be from another world, so clear is its fruit expression, so vital and charged with energy. A revolutionary wine and one of the best Chilean Cabernets I have tasted.

Patricio’s ten top Chadwick wines:

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