Odfjell Orzada Carmenere 2020  £23.22

Odfjell Orzada Carmenere

Over twenty-five years ago, Dan Odfjell the Norwegian Armador (shipowner) fell in love with a small corner of the Maipo Valley. Serendipity would later show that he had found land in Chile’s premium red wine producing valley, where Vitis vinifera has been cultivated for 400 years. While most of the other top producers in Chile are working with relatively young vines, Odfjell has forged a unique reputation based on rediscovering the forgotten wealth of Chile’s winemaking past. At the time this was considered a very eccentric move but now the interest in these old sites has grown exponentially, in no small part thanks to Odfjell. Crafting wines that fully maximise the great potential of the region, this year having joined the new association of Vignadores de Carignan, Odfjell is committed to sustainable agriculture and green winemaking practices, the vineyards are all cultivated organically and biodynamically and are working towards certification.

Odfjell Orzada Carmenere is a dark red colour with purple highlights. It has a complex nose, with spices, ripe red fruits (cherries, raspberries and plums) mixed with blackberries followed by tobacco, concentrated and juicy on the palate with a velvety soft finish.

The grapes were hand-picked using 400kg bins and were not crushed on reception to the winery; 90% of the clusters were only destemmed. The whole berries had four to five days of cold maceration at 14°C prior to fermentation and 15 days of maceration at no more than 26ºC after fermentation. Selected and native wild yeasts were used during the fermentation, which took place in stainless steel tanks. Spontaneous malolactic fermentation, followed by ageing in stainless steel.

The grapes are 100% organically grown on sandy loam on a bedrock of granite in the Cauquenes region in the Maule Valley. Shoots are removed in the spring, and internal canopy leaves are removed 30 days before harvest, with two lots of green harvesting, one after fruit set and one 30 days before harvest.