Wine Reviews

This starts with a spicy nose that features hints of aniseed, cinnamon and cassis. It has depth and silky tannins. The wine’s balanced mouthfeel shows flavors of mulberry, plum, and oak spices and notes of Mediterranean herbs that end in a long finish.

The 2020 Syrah Foly hails from Apalta, Colchagua, and was aged for 18 months in French oak barrels, 70% of them new. A rich purple hue. The nose presents bacon and spice with hints of curry and cedar against a blackberry jam backdrop. Indulgent and intense in the mouth. The finely grained tannins and juicy flow produce a ripe, voluminous red with a lingering balsamic finish.

Deep, opulent and rich but not overdone. Plenty of blackberries, dark chocolate and cigar box. Spices and graphite, too. Just a hint of figs. The full-bodied palate is tightly wound but tense, with tight tannins and concentrated black fruit. Really flavorful and long.

Montes Folly is one of Chile’s benchmark wines, and sets the bar for Syrah from Apalta which has now become the region’s calling card. Opens with a seductive nose of exotic spice, fresh black pepper and a dense core of black fruit and smoked meat, and leads through to a rich wine with an almost chocolate-like silkiness and density. A wine for hedonists.

This bold red has a garrigue and fresh nutmeg cast, with a potent core of blueberry and blackberry. Picks up spiced pastry and rich milk chocolate notes on the finish, which linger around suave tannins.