The Producer

Seña, Mondavi & Chadwick

In the early 1990s, Chile was becoming known for mass-produced, affordable wines, but Chadwick, whose family owns the Errázuriz winery, knew that the country could produce top-quality wines. Chadwick and Mondavi aspired to produce a fresh, balanced wine unlike the riper, fruitier wines from Chile’s generally warm growing conditions.

To this end, a dedicated vineyard was created in the Aconcagua Valley, north of Santiago and about 40 kilometres from the coast. There the vines would benefit from both the bright sunlight from the generally cloudless Chilean skies and the cooling breezes from the Pacific Ocean.

Seña means “sign,” as it was to be a sign of Chile’s ability to make fine wine. The first vintage was 1995, and it was released in 1997 to critical praise. Seña went on to outclass some of the most prestigious Bordeaux and Super-Tuscan wines in the 2004 Berlin Tasting—a replay of the famous Judgment of Paris of 1976, where California wines beat the best of Bordeaux. In Berlin, Seña 2001 ranked second and bested Bordeaux greats such as Margaux, Latour, and Lafite Rothschild. It was beaten only by Eduardo Chadwick’s other icon wine, Viñedo Chadwick.

Seña has evolved over time—it is “completely different in the last 10 years,” says Francisco Baettig, Seña’s winemaker who has been at Errázuriz for 18 years. To make a fresher, more balanced, and more drinkable wine, they have fine-tuned the vineyards, providing more foliage to shade the grapes from direct sun. They have lowered alcohol: “We can do 13 to 14 per cent; you don’t need to go to 14.5 to 15 per cent.” Baettig says his message is “fully ripened with moderate alcohol,” and in this he and Seña were ahead of the curve—this is just the style of quality red wine that is currently in demand.

Seña is now made from five Bordeaux varieties: cabernet sauvignon, carmenère, malbec, cabernet franc, and petit verdot. (Merlot was phased out because it did not perform well in the Seña vineyard.) Although cabernet sauvignon is consistently 55 to 60 per cent of the blend, there is no recipe. Malbec contributes 18 per cent in 2018, but it was only 12 per cent in 2015. Blends depend on vintages, and the growing conditions clearly show in each year’s Seña. People talk about a “sense of place” in wine, but a “sense of time” is far more meaningful.

The Region

Central Valley, Maipo Valley

The Andes have a significant effect on the climate in Puente Alto. Vineyards are shaded in the morning as the sun rises over the mountain range, and warm, sunny afternoons are then followed by colder nights cooled by alpine winds. The altitude of the area exacerbates this diurnal temperature variation, slowing the ripening of the berries overnight. This leads to a balance of flavor and acidity in the wines of Puente Alto.

Vines arrived in the region in the 1800s, spreading south from the pioneering Cousifio Macul vineyard north of the Maipo River. Any description of Puente Alto as a wine-producing area must reference the great names Almaviva and Don Melchor – the two wines that put the area on the viticultural map.

Vinedo Chadwick is also based in Puente Alto and has cemented the region's prestige by winning international competitions and awards. The Berlin Tasting of 2004 pitched this Puente Alto wine against Chateaux Lafite, Latour, and Margaux and Italian greats Sassicaia and Tignanello. The panel of 36 European judges voted Viñedo Chadwick as the top wine, making history for Chile's wine industry and breaking the image of the country as a producer-only of 'good-value Merlot'.