Herencia 2007

A bottle of Santa Carolina ‘Herencia’ 2007 is a celebration of 135 years of heritage and experience. Only 600 cases were bottled with the 2007 vintage, a very scarce and special product; a Carmenère made with the best grapes of our small vineyards of D.O. Peumo. This is a wine which looks for complexity and elegance, which will age lovely.

Carmenère is special to Chile and Herencia is the combination of two great terroirs:  Peumo in the Cachapoal Valley and Los Lingues in the Colchagua Valley.  94% of the blend is Carmenère with the remainder made up of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon.  85% of the Carmenère comes from our La Rinconada Estate in Peumo and the rest comes from Los Lingues, Alto Colchagua.  Both are ideal terroirs for Carmenère in Chile.  Peumo provides structure, typicity, fruit and concentration to the blend while Los Lingues offers elegance and complexity…

TASTING NOTE
Deep, dark garnet red in appearance and bursting with ripe aromas of plums and cherries mixed with hints of tobacco and clove.  On the palate it is smooth and full-bodied and flavours include cassis and liquorice.  Its tannins are sweet and round while its finish is juicy and persistent.

Santa Carolina

Specialties Range

Santa Carolina’s “Specialties” range is composed by wines that come from newly discovered terroirs, from unique corners of Chile where the search for freshness and uniqueness has brought new wine regions to the world.

It is also a range of re-discovery, recognising heritage and bringing history back to life. Old and forgotten grape varieties, dry farming and never ending root systems, old vineyards and small producers, all together expressing the true essence of Santa Carolina: Chilean Heritage & Innovation.

Reserva Range

Sauvignon Blanc

Chardonnay

Pinot Noir

Merlot

Carmenère

Syrah

Cabernet Sauvignon

Our Reserva range is designed to showcase  the best of Chile. We choose the best region to bring out the best of each grape varietal, so the range is made from grapes grown across Chile.

 

This is a range of wines designed to enjoy with food, so Andres and Alejandro have chosen what their favourite dishes are to accompany each wine.

Chile's Wine Regions

We make our wines from across Chile’s diverse regions and valleys – from northern Elqui to southern Maule, from Coastal Leyda to the Upper Maipo, managing vineyards with a myriad of temperature conditions and soil types.  A diversity that is expressed in our wine portfolio.

Chile

The Spaniard conquerors arrived in Chile in 1541, when Pedro de Valdivia established the city of Santiago. No gold was found, nor any other natural resource that would raise the interest of the Spanish Crown. Those who decided to stay were idealists, men of will and strength.

By the beginning of the 1800s, the whole continent was rebelling against the European King and declaring its independence, founding Republics based on the French Revolutionary ideas. Chile was established in 1810.

France became a model and a symbol of sophistication. The newly self declared Chilean nationals travelled to immerse themselves in the French culture, coming back with ideas, flavours and vines!

Yes, vines. Hence, a country conquered and colonized by the Spanish, developed its wine industry based on the French wine approach. Most plants were brought from Bordeaux just before the Phylloxera outbreak, a disease that destroyed most vineyards in Europe in 1860s.

Chile, an isolated corner in South America, became the last refuge for grape varietals killed in France. With natural barriers, the dangerous invisible bug never developed. Varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, Carignan…all became comfortable in a land that became the ‘Paradise for Viticulture’.

During these years, Mr. Pereira established Viña Santa Carolina, honouring his wife and beginning a long tradition of winemaking. He decided to bring three French winemakers and the classic grape varieties from Bordeaux. The Maipo Valley begun its journey to become one of the most respected terroirs worldwide.

Chile

Chile is a country of meagre width and impressive length wedged between the Andes Mountain Range to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. As such, it measures an average of 175 km / 109 mi wide, and 4,500 km / 2,800 mi long. But even that understates how narrow the country is! The fact is that those mountains that run along the border with Argentina, occupy one third of the width!

Most Chileans live in the Central Valley, a fertile and narrow area that runs along a smaller range of mountains in the coast, known as the Coastal Range.  This is also the ‘Wine Country’.

To the North, you’ll find one of the driest deserts of the world, the Atacama. To the south, the Patagonia, a cold and wet jungle of Rain Forest cut by fiords and channels, and inhabited by only by a few.

Some people think Chileans are shy and islanders. The truth is, Chileans are passionate people that speak quietly and work hard. This passion is apparent in the winemaking!

History

Santa Carolina , founded in 1875, it is among the oldest wineries of Chile.

In 1875 Don Luis Pereira founds Viña Santa Carolina, to honour his beloved wife Carolina Iñiguez.

1889: Reserva de Familia wins the gold medal at the  Exposition Universelle de France, being the first Chilean wine being recognised in an international level. 

1880: The cellar is built. It was designed by the French architect Émile Doyère. Declared National  Monument in 1973, and it is still used nowadays.

Today, Santa Carolina is a vibrant winery – staying true to  this heritage of quality and care, whilst experimenting and innovating to make the finest wines Chile can offer.

Welcome to my blog

Terroir, Personality and diversity

  

       My name is Alejandro Wedeles and I’m the winemaker at Santa Carolina.

I started as a winemaker at Santa Carolina in 2007 and I’ve experienced harvest  across the world – in the USA, Spain and France, plus 10 years at Viña Santa Rita in Chile. My focus and passion is the regions of Chile, so I feel right at home at Santa Carolina, as our whole philosophy is based on regionality.

After many years in winemaking, we now understand the unbreakable link between soil, climate & wine. We believe that great wine is made in the vineyard, not the winery – so our quest is to find the terroirs that will give birth to grapes with unique characters.

Each of our wines has a distinct personality, expressing the soil from where it grew. The most important part of our work is to seek out the very best regions and areas to grow our grapes.

In Chile we are spoilt for choice. It is amazingly diverse, from north to south and from east to west. We are still discovering new and exciting regions to grow different grape varietals, so we are experimenting all the time to bring you the very best Chile has to offer.