Ravanal 2022 Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon

ABOUT THE PRODUCER

• Viña Ravanal sits in Placilla, at the eastern end of the Colchagua Valley, beside the old San Fernando–Pichilemu rail line. Mario Ravanal — eldest of eight, raised by a farmer father — studied agronomy at the Universidad de Chile and went to France in 1960 for postgraduate work in enology and viticulture at Montpellier and Bordeaux.
• On a visit home in 1965 he heard a property in Placilla was for sale, bought it for the vineyards already producing on it, and has spent the sixty years since among them. Some of those vines are over a hundred years old and were bearing fruit long before the family arrived.
• His three children — Carmen Paz, Pía and Mario Sebastián — are all enologists and run the estate today. Every vineyard is family-owned, in Placilla and San José de Manantiales, and everything is hand-picked.
• The valley floor runs stony, clay and deep alluvial, with a sharp day–night temperature swing off the Tinguiririca. Ripening is slow, yields are low, and concentration is the payoff.

ABOUT THE WINE

• Cabernet is what Colchagua’s alluvial floor was built for, and Ravanal’s Gran Reserva comes off the oldest estate blocks in Placilla — vines averaging a hundred years old, in the historic vineyards surrounding the winery.
• Deep stony soils, low vigor, hand harvest, and a long mild autumn that lets the tannins resolve on the vine rather than in the cellar.

Vintage: 2022 | Wine Type: Red Wine
Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Origin: Chile | Appellation: D.O. Valle de Colchagua
Vineyard: Estate — Placilla and San José de Manantiales, old-vine selection, hand-harvested
Elaboration: Fruit from estate vines averaging 100 years old, carefully selected and aged 12 months in French and American oak barrels.

TASTING NOTES

Deep ruby-garnet. Black currant and black plum over sweet tobacco, cedar and dark chocolate, the oak folded in rather than sitting on top. Full-bodied, creamy and polished, with structured, silky tannins carrying a long finish that reflects the depth of these old vines. Drinking well now and will hold. Serve at 62–64°F; an hour in a decanter opens it.

TECHNICAL DATA

Alcohol: 13.5% | Format: 12 x 750 ml

PRESS & POINTS

2022 – 92 Points, James Suckling: “creamy, polished and full-bodied,” with ripe black currant, black plum, sweet tobacco and dark chocolate over silky tannins.

Top 100 Wines of Chile, JamesSuckling.com — awarded to a previous vintage.