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Pinot
Noir 1998, Maipo Valley: garnet ruby coloured, with intensive aromas of
jam and strawberries. This wine shows a great body, with a very good
structure, and soft tannins. Well balanced. It should be decanted prior
to serving as with all good red wines.
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William
Fevre – A Class Act
William Fèvre is one of the most important estates in the
Chablis region of France, with nearly 40 acres of Chablis Grands
Crus vineyards. Not only is Fèvre the largest owner of Grands
Crus in the region, but it also has the distinction of owning
parcels in six of the seven Grands Crus vineyards.
In
1989 William Fèvre, forbidden by Brussels diktat from extending
his plantings of Chardonnay in his native Chablis, decided to
turn to Chile to supply the ever increasing demand for wine made
by him. He buys grapes from contracted growers, who cultivate
their vines according to his requirements, and he vinifies them
in his own winery. The Chardonnay is of true reserve quality and
the Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon is bursting with ripe
middle fruit, which shows that one of the world’s great white
wine-makers is a dab hand at making fine modern red wine too.
Both wines are shipped in bulk to Chablis for ageing and
bottling.
Le
vignoble du Chili
The prime quality vineyards are situated in the central part of
the country, over a distance of 350kms in the Aconcagua, Maipo,
Rapel and Maule River Valleys.
Created
by the Spanish conquerors in the 16th Century,
Chile’s vineyards are the oldest existing vineyards outside
the Mediterranean world.
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was also the only vineyard region where the highly rated French
varietals such as the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and
Sauvignon blanc, introduced in the 19th Century have
been able to conserve their clones from the pre-phylloxerna
period. Phylloxera has never existed in Chile. All of these
varietals, as well as the more recently introduced Chardonnay,
are planted here ungrafted. |
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The
wine producing vocation of these valleys is mainly due to their
Mediterranean climate : warm and dry in summer, but constantly
exposed to the refreshing breezes coming down from the Andes
Cordillera or up from the Pacific Ocean.
As
Chile is situated in the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are the
reverse of those in the Northern Hemisphere and the grape
harvest does not take place in September and October but in
March and April.
As
the climate is dry the vines must be irrigated. Each harvest can
be carried out in the conditions of perfect maturity. |
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William
Fevre Chile Ltd was created in 1991 between William Fevre, a
French winegrower, the largest producer of Chablis Grand Crus :
and Victor Pino who, besides his important position in the
Chilean industry, manages with a high level of expertise and
dynamism his landed properties and those of the Arrigoriaga
family.
Vina
W.F. Chile produces Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon wines ;
the first ones with the grapes from the Fundo Arrigorriaga in
San Juan de Pirque and from La Parcela in Pique, and the second
ones with grapes from Miramonte de San Fernando.
Nowadays,
the vinification of these wines is carried out totally in a
winery that the company fit up in the Fundo San Luis de Pirque. |
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This
spot, 30 kms south of Santiago was chosen for the beauty of the
site, its access to the San Juan and La Parcela vineyards, and
also to the excellent road network linking it to the rest of
Chile’s vineyards.
A
part of the wines produced in bottled locally. The other part is
transferred to France, in isotherm tanks, just after the
fermentation, in order to be aged in barrels before bottling.
SAN JUAN
The flagship wine produced by W.F. Chile is a Chardonnay, coming
from a vineyard area of 36 hectares at San Juan de Pirque, in
the high valley of Maipo. These vineyards are situated at an
altitude of 750 meters in the Fundo Arrigorriaga, among
outstanding plantations of walnut and almond trees. |
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LA
PARCELA
Another Chardonnay wine is now produced in a vineyard area of 8
hectares, by grafting onto old vinestocks, in the Fundo named La
Parcela in Pirque, at the foot of the Andes Cordillera.
SAN
LUIS
At San Luis de Pirque, W.F. Chile has created an experimental
vineyard area. It consists of a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc
plantations, using cutting from different clones imported from
France : other plantations of Pinot Noir, Merlot ; a Cabernet
Sauvignon plantations using cuttings from Chile and another one
with cuttings from California. |
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MIRAMONTE
W.F. Chile also produces a Cabernet Sauvignon wine from a very old
established vineyard called Miramonte in the Rapel Valley, close to San
Fernando, surrounded by the Andes Cordillera Mountains and those of the
Pacific Ocean. These vineyards are almost a century old.
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