Almaviva

Located in the highest part of Maipo Valley, in Chile’s central zone, Puente Alto was recognized over twenty years ago as offering ideal conditions for growing the Cabernet Sauvignon grape. It is here that 60 hectares have been reserved exclusively for Almaviva.

Featured characteristics of Puente Alto include its rocky, poor soils, which consist of loamy clay down to 50 centimeters, sandy loam, gravel, and rocks below. These alluvial soils allow for proper drainage and impart minerality, as well as lower pH levels, resulting in extraordinary quality, balance and elegance.

Almaviva is located in the northern bank of the Maipo River 650 meters above sea level. It’s situated at the foot of the Andes cordillera, in the Maipo River basin. A determining factor in this extraordinary terroir is the cold weather influence of the Andes cordillera, which manifests itself in the form of fresh breezes and an ample temperature oscillation between day and night, particularly during the maturation period. These conditions encourage a long and homogenous development of the grapes, jointly with a more pronounced acidity, a fresh red fruit and a higher concentration of color and aromas in the grape bunches.

The climate of Puente Alto is characterized as semiarid Mediterranean. An average annual rainfall of 300 mm, concentrated principally in the winter months offers an absence of fungal diseases and provides ideal growing conditions for supreme vegetative development. This corresponds to one of the coldest zones in the Maipo Valley, being in the high part of the valley itself.

The Almaviva winery has 60 hectares productive vineyards. The oldest vineyards were planted in 1978 in Puente Alto, a place that has been recognized for more than 30 years for having ideal conditions for producing one of the best Cabernet Sauvignon’s in Chile.
The winery was planted with five distinct varieties, the Cabernet Sauvignon, the Carménère, the Cabernet Franc, the Merlot, and the Petit Verdot, with Cabernet Sauvignon being by far the most cultivated, as it is particularly well adapted to the terroir of Puente Alto.

This arrangement determined the mix of Almaviva, an assemblage of various bordelais wines, with a predominance of Cabernet Sauvignon, harmoniously associated with smaller percentages of Carménère and Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. The final result is a novel, potent, and unique wine that offers the best of both worlds.