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Viñedo Chadwick
Viñedo Chadwick is another project from Eduardo Chadwick of Viña Errázuriz and Seña, a man who has been instrumental in building Chile’s reputation in the fine wine arena.
Viñedo Chadwick is another project from Eduardo Chadwick of Viña Errázuriz and Seña, a man who has been instrumental in building Chile’s reputation in the fine wine arena. His father, Alfonso Chadwick Errázuriz bought the 300-hectare estate in the Alto Maipo Valley in 1945, to indulge his love of wine and polo, having captained the Chilean team for many years. In 1992 – realising that his father’s polo field sat on gravel soils perfectly suited to Cabernet – Eduardo persuaded him to convert it to vineyards.
Sadly Alfonso died the following year, before he could see the fruit of the project. In 1999, the first vintage of Viñedo Chadwick – an ultra-premium expression of Chilean Cabernet from the Maipo Valley – was made, in tribute to Alfonso and continuing his legacy.
Viñedo Chadwick made the history books in 2004 when it came first in the Berlin Tasting – arranged by Eduardo Chadwick to prove the potential of Chilean fine wine. Chadwick’s premium expressions of Chile were tasted blind alongside the world’s finest Bordeaux blends, including First Growth Claret and Super Tuscans. The results, with Viñedo Chadwick and Seña leading the pack, officially put Chile on the fine wine map. The 2014 vintage of Viñedo Chadwick was the first Chilean wine to be awarded 100 points, as rated by critic James Suckling.
The aim here is to produce a wine of elegance and purity that expresses a real sense of place. The wine is often 100% Cabernet, but a small percentage of Petit Verdot is included in some years. Today Viñedo Chadwick competes with the finest Cabernets from around the world.
Planted between 1992 and 2015, the 15-hectare vineyard sits at 650 metres above sea-level in Puente Alto, in the Maipo Valley, at the foot of the Andes. The gravel soils that Eduardo identified allow excellent drainage. The diurnal range here – between warm sunny days and cool nights – is key to preserving the grapes’ aromatics and acidity, while also allowing them to ripen beautifully. The site also benefits from cooling breezes coming off the mountains during the day, moderating the daytime temperature. Sustainable farming is employed, with the use of cover crops to control vigour and encourage biodiversity.
Compost is produced on-site to use as fertiliser and the vines are drip-irrigated. The vineyard is divided into several blocks, all of which are picked at optimum ripeness in the cool of the early morning.
Francisco Baettig – Chile’s most famous and respected winemaker – is in charge of the winemaking for Viñedo Chadwick, having taken over in 2003. He is constantly tweaking work in the vineyard and winery to make the most elegant expression of the site possible.
On arrival at the winery, the fruit is de-stemmed, sorted, then crushed and fermented in separate lots in a combination of stainless steel and concrete. It will spend up to a month on skins with up to three pump-overs a day. The wine is then aged for close to two years in mostly new French oak, with some Stockinger casks, then blended just prior to bottling.
