2020 Almaviva, Maipo Valley Chile

2020 was exceptionally dry, with 75% less rain than usual in the period between May and September, which resulted in an earlier harvest to produce a 2020 Almaviva with 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Carmenère (from Peumo), 6% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, so with no Merlot this time. The process was as careful as possible, without using any bombs, doing manual and optical sorting of the grapes, pressing in small vertical presses and aging of 20 months in French oak barrels, 73% of them new and the rest second use. The wine reached good ripeness with 14.9% alcohol. It still shows the effect of the élevage a bit, with abundant notes of sweet spices, a creamy touch and some smoke. I tasted it next to the 2019, and the wines have a very similar aromatic palette with a clear note of baked peppers. What was amazing in 2020 was that they harvested the Carmenere almost five weeks earlier than they normally would, and the result is not a green wine at all. As in all dry years, the wines show a little more tannic, a little in the style of the 2017—but the 2020 has more tension than the 2017, and the 2017 was more powerful and with a bigger tannic structure. The 2019 had more volume than the 2018, and the 2020 is closer to the 2019 than the 2018. 200,000 bottles produced. It was bottled during the second half of February 2022.

96 points Luis Guttierrez robertparker.com

I tasted the 2020 wines from Almaviva with winemaker Michel Friou, which represents Almaviva's 25th vintage. The 2020s were bright and expressive, nicely crafted, clean and with integrated oak. 2020 was a dry vintage (one big concern, 2021 and 2022 are almost the same) and also warm, so the wines have to reflect that condition with a very early harvest, almost three weeks earlier than the average. But having an early harvest was a blessing because Covid arrived. As on previous occasions, he provided some back vintages to give context, and the older wines consistently show an animal note. This time I had the 1996, which had hints of leather but felt very classical and still alive, with good color. The wines from the turn of the century show the effect of the new oak; the 2009 still has abundant notes of toast and smoke, with hints of roasted sesame seeds, and it was a ripe year—it still felt tannic, or perhaps the quality of the tannins is not the same as nowadays. I also revisited 2019, the previous vintage, which showed very much in line with the style of the 2020, cleaner, sleeker, velvety and caressing, still powerful but with elegance.