Viña Morandé has scooped up some of the top scores for Chile in this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA). Taking away a highly coveted Platinum Award for its Black Series Pinot Noir – scoring 97 points – as well as 12 other awards, Viña Morandé was one of the most awarded South American wineries in this year’s edition of the world’s largest and most rigorous wine competition.
Glittering show of Chilean diversity
Although based in Cachapoal, Viña Morandé prides itself in making a diverse collection of wines from Chile’s myriad terroirs.
The wines honoured at this year’s awards reflect that diverse range of styles and terroirs: with Silver medal winners ranging from juicy Mourvèdre from Maule and rich Cabernet Sauvignon from Maipo to vibrant old vine blends of Cinsault and Pais from Itata and Carmenère and Malbec from the Secano Interior.
The two wines to scoop Gold, though, were both Sauvignon Blancs from Casablanca — Vitis Única 2021 and Selección de Viñedos 2022. As the winery founded by Pablo Morandé, the pioneer of Casablanca and cool-coast Sauvignon Blanc, Viña Morandé’s triumph in coastal Sauvignon Blanc is certainly fitting. After almost three decades of cultivating this variety in Casablanca, Viña Morandé is a leader in New World Sauvignon Blanc, as the awards reflect.
Irrepressible pioneering spirit
The results of DWWA 2023 also celebrate Viña Morandé’s irrepressible pioneering spirit in other regions too. Not only has Viña Morandé made its mark working with old vines and rarer varieties found in Maule and Itata, but under Head Winemaker Ricardo Baettig the winery has broadened its horizons to look even further south.
It was Baettig’s foray into the new, emerging cool-climate region of Malleco that took home one of only three Platinum Awards given to Chilean wines this year. Malleco is firmly making its mark as one of the regions to watch for top-quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and Viña Morandé produces its Black Series from this unique volcanic terroir. The Black Series Chardonnay 2021 took home Silver, while the Black Series Pinot Noir 2021 scooped Platinum — the awards’ highest honour.
The low-yielding vines are nestled between the Andes and the Nahuelbuta Mountains, where mild temperatures and rainy winters bring a distinctive character to the wines. ‘Complex swirling aromas of burnt flowers, pomegranate, woodsmoke, ripe, dark summer berries with nuances of toasty and spicy oak, roasted coffee and savoury undertones,’ said the judges at DWWA 2023 of the Platinum Award-winning Pinot Noir, describing it as ‘very dynamic and layered, with elegant and firm tannins’.
As the awards highlight, Viña Morandé is confidently setting the benchmark in Chile with wines from regions both old and new.
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