Seña, Red Blend, Aconcagua Valley, Chile, 2021

Overview of the Wine
In the early 1990s, Chile was just emerging into the international world of wine. However, Eduardo Chadwick, who had joined his father in the family wine business, Viña Errázuriz, in 1983, already knew from his extensive travels to the wine regions of the world that Chile’s land and climate were particularly suited for producing fine wines and had great potential. And when family friend and vintner Agustín Huneeus asked him to spend some time showing Robert Mondavi and his wife Margrit around the Chilean wine country, he was delighted to have the opportunity.

Robert Mondavi found a kindred spirit in young Eduardo Chadwick, who spent a week showing him around central Chile in 1991. They visited many wineries in the Aconcagua, Maipo, and Colchagua valleys.

By the time they were done, they were both convinced that Chile had all the potential that California had shown two decades earlier and that together they could make an outstanding wine—a true Icon—that could prove Chile’s world-class potential.

Winemakers
Robert Mondavi and Eduardo Chadwick

Grape / Blend
50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Malbec, 17% Carmenere, 6% Petit Verdot

Origin
Aconcagua Valley

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
An outstanding vintage due to moderately cool conditions that translated into a slow smooth ripening of the grapes. Pure, elegant and refined wine.

The season saw average rainfall with 282mm falling between May and October and this enabled the aquifers in the valley to recover their levels ready for the coming season. With a total heat summation of 1,425 DD, slightly fresher than historical averages, that created an ideal slow growing season. In spring, the temperatures were within historical levels favouring a perfect fruit set. The summer was slightly cooler and cloudier than other years, with some refreshing rain (9mm) in late January, which ensured a gentle ripening of healthy grapes. During late March, the Seña vineyards were blessed with moderately warm days, allowing the grapes to reach perfect maturity.

The 2021 vintage will be remembered as an exceptional year with ideal conditions resulting in a vibrant wine of great purity. A wine with high aromatic complexity, refreshing acidity and delicious linear palate with fine-grained tannins. A vintage with an extraordinary ageing potential.

100 Points - James Suckling
Overwhelming nose with a cornucopia of black, red and blue berries, perfectly accented by fine toasty oak. With aeration the floral notes expand. Super-concentrated and vibrant with incredible finesse on the medium- to full-bodied palate. Such great brilliance at the finish, where the power builds very steadily. Still so young, but already dangerously delicious. It will be really hard to wait. A cuvee of 50% cabernet sauvignon, 27% malbec, 17% carmenere and 6% petit verdot. From biodynamically grown grapes.

98 Points - Wine Advocate
One of the finest vintages of the iconic Seña wine, the 2021 Seña comes from a cooler year, following the path of 2016 and 2018, certainly cooler than 2020 and 2019. It has a super expressive nose that is elegant, nuanced, perfumed, subtle and pure, with aromatic finesse, layered and complex. It was picked a couple of weeks later than in the previous two years and still keeping the alcohol below 14%. It was produced with a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Malbec (cooler years with more), 17% Carmenere and 6% Petit Verdot, fermented mostly in stainless steel and 10% in oak foudre. It's fine-grained and structured but juicy, similar to 2018 but with more finesse. It has the spicy/herbal twist from the Cabernet, ultra-refined tannins that give it great elegance and with length, purity and delineation. Superb! (LG) 98+

98 Points - Falstaff
Dark ruby with an opaque core and purple reflections, subtly brighter at the edge. Tobacco and oak savouriness, delicate notes of liquorice, blackberry and nuances of meadow herbs. Taut, elegant, red cherry on the tightly woven and savoury palate, with pleasant acidity and a salty-mineral finish. All of a piece, harmonious and long-lasting. A finesse-rich food companion with certain ageing potential. 

97 Points - Decanter
The moderately cool conditions of the year have produced an intensely fragrant and concentrated wine on the nose - this smells powerful and expressive. Smooth, silky and seductive with crystalline, succulent and ample fruit - blackcurrants, cherries and strawberries, but mostly black fruit, with clear menthol, clove, cocoa and a liquorice tang. Bright and lifted, this has clear personality and such a stylish execution. Full and round, forward and intense, but delivered with poise. A delicious wine with so much to like not least the exceptional acidity coupled with the depth and width giving a complete wine with intensity and refinement. Everything feels carefully considered but still giving flavour and verve. (GH)

96 Points - Vinous
The 2021 Seña is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with 27% Malbec, 17% Carménère and 6% Petit Verdot from Ocoa in the Aconcagua Valley. It was aged for 22 months, 90% in French oak barrels (70% new) and 10% in foudres. Purple with a garnet sheen. The nose presents vivid redcurrant and blackcurrant notes with a layer of garrigue against a cigar box backdrop. Dry in the mouth, refreshing acidity stirs up finely grained tannins to channel the palate. A lingering, fruity red that will grow in the bottle. (JH)

Product size: 750ml