2014 Viña Aquitania Lazuli Cabernet Sauvignon Valle de Maipo Peñalolen Chile

About this Wine

• What connects Bollinger, Ch. Margaux, and Cos d'Estournel? It's Viña Aquitania!
• Blended by late Paul Pontallier of Chateau Margaux (SRP of $1500/btl!)
• 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28 year old vines
• BHW has the lowest price in the US
• Free Shipping on 12 bottles

In 1990 Bruno Prats of Cos d'Estournel in St. Estephe and his friend, the late Paul Pontallier, who served as technical director at Chateau Margaux for decades, purchased a vineyard and built a new winery outside Santiago, Chile. Felipe de Solminihac, a Chilean winemaker of French heritage, runs the estate. Later, Ghislain de Montgolfier, former President of Bollinger Champagne joined the team.

Let's talk about stacking the bench. The wines that these guys produce in France are among the most sought after and the price is well above that of the Chilean Cabernet on offer today. This is a 94pt rated wine from Robert Parker, that stands should to shoulder with wines that are 3x or more expensive. 

Tasting Notes: An intense ruby red color. Very elegant and complex nose, which presents aromas of ripe red fruits, spices, with notes of dried fruits like figs and prunes that blend with notes of mocha and tobacco. The palate is harmonious and complex, very elegant, with a pleasant combination of fruits and spices. With soft, round tannins, this wine has great structure and a lingering finish.

Reviews

Their top red is not produced every year, so from the 2011 I tasted last time they jumped to the 2014 Lazuli Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2014 was produced from vines cropped at 5.5 tons of grapes per hectare. It fermented in 6,500-liter stainless steel vats after four days of cold soak. Malolactic was in barrel, where the wine matured for 16 months. Thirty percent of the barrels were new, yet the wine does not show any oak flavors or aromas, and it feels very nicely integrated. This is balsamic, a little earthy and especially elegant, insinuating rather than in-your-face. The palate is very sleek, with super refined tannins and very good freshness. This was the last Lazuli blended by the late Paul Pontallier of Château Margaux. This certainly over delivers for the price asked. This has great elegance and should age for a very long time. Some 10,000 bottles were produced.

I met with Ghislain de Montgolfier, one of the partners at Viña Aquitania from Champagne Bollinger, to taste through the recent portfolio of their wines. The wines show a mixture of Chilean and French character, more on the elegant than the powerful side. ~94, WA

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