Casas del Bosque in Tim Atkin's best wines from 'new Chile'
ABS Wine Agencies, Wed 21 Oct 2020
Casas del Bosque Late Harvest Riesling featured in Tim Atkin's 16 best wines from 'new Chile'. Click here to read the full article about how wines of Chile are changing to a new style.
Casas del Bosque Late Harvest Riesling, 2018 Casablanca D.O. Costa. 12%
2018 was a cracking vintage in Chile but harder for botrytis, obviously, on account of the dry, sunny conditions, according to winemaker Meinard Bloem.
40/50% of the fruit (grafted in 2008 onto Merlot vines) had natural botrytis resulting in an r/s of 184 g/l, where their goal is 120 g/l. The acidity is moderate to high 6.6 g/l. Getting the abv up was difficult, especially as under 11.5% the end product is not legally wine in Chile.
The wine has been fermented in 5thuse French oak barrels for six weeks, then racked into steel. The resulting wine has subtle oak notes and the Volatile Acidity kept under-threshold. “We have done away with new oak – just have old barrels for complexity,” said Bloem.