Louis Latour Agencies

London Wine Fair : Winemaker Focus Viu Manent

19 April 2017

Stand B22

New for 2017 we are presenting a series of Wine Flights throughout the three days of the London Wine Fair. Breaking our range of wines and cognacs into bite sized pieces, these flights will show case the breadth and variety of our products and new and sometime surprising ways.

Celebrating their 80th anniversary in 2015, Viu Manent are one of Colchagua’s oldest wine producers and are Chile’s first Malbec specialist. In the 1960s the Viu family where fortunate to buy a very old vineyard called San Carlos close to the town of Cunaco in Central Colchagua. This own rooted vineyard was first established in the 19th century with cuttings from France and contained many fine Malbec and Cabernet vines.

At a time when many of their neighbours uprooted Malbec in favour of more fashionable like Cabernet Sauvignon, the Viu’s who loved their Malbec vines took their own route. Today the San Carlos Vineyard has been joined by two other sites that were established in the 1990s west ward in the Peralillo district called La Capilla and El Olivar, and it is these three sites that make up the Viu Manent Estate.

Join export director (and trained winemaker) Cristian Urzua to discover the diversity of Malbecs on offer from Viu Manent’s vineyards.

Estate Collection Reserva Malbec

From various locations across Viu Manent’s Estate, the vineyards are located on sandy clay soils of alluvial origin. The wine was fermented in cement and stainless steel tanks before approximately 20% was transferred to old French oak barrels to mature. The resulting wine focused and pure with intense floral aromas and flavours of ripe plums and pink peppercorns.

Gran Reserva Malbec

Primarily for 25 year old blocks on the San Carlos Vineyard which grow on soils of alluvial origin with a sandy clay texture. Viu Manent look for greater extraction of colour and aromas with this wine but work gentle to ensure the resulting wine is elegant, well balanced and food friendly. 80% of the wine was aged for 12 months in French oak with the remaining 20% either in Stainless steel or cement.

Secret Malbec

For this wine Viu Manent use grapes from their El Olivar Vineyard in the Peralillo district where the soils are distinctly different soils to those in San Carlos. Piedmont soils lie on 5-8% gradient slopes with very good drainage and porosity with clay and fine gravels. Fermentation, with wild yeasts, took place in stainless steel followed by nine months in French Oak (56%), stainless steel and concrete tanks. Viu Manent ultimate objective is to create a wine with freshness, moderate elegant tannins and a soft approachable fruity character.

San Carlos Single Vineyard Malbec

This limited release wine comes from blocks 5 and 6 of the San Carlos vineyard which were planted more than 100 years ago and are considered two of the finest sites on this vineyard. The soils are of alluvial origin, with extraordinary porosity and the ability to administer water to the vines through the season. A selection in the vineyard was followed by a second at the sorting table before being destemmed and transferred to stainless steel tanks and concrete eggs. Here a natural fermentation took place before 70% transferred to French oak barrels and the rest remain in the concrete eggs where is aged for 16 months.

Viu 1 Malbec

Viu 1 is produced from Block 4 of the San Carlos Vineyard and represents the pinnacle of Malbec at Viu Manent.  This block was planted more than 100 years ago. Three grape selections took place. Fermentation is in small stainless steel tanks where it remained for 24 days before being racked to French oak barrels (90% new) for 17 months before bottling, unfiltered.

On tasting

Monday 10am – 3pm | Tuesday 2.30-5pm | Wednesday 12 noon until 2.30pm