Antiyal

Well ,we pressed our first wine on Saturday May 2, Alvaros birthday, so he spent it pressing, our first wine, our Cabernet Sauvignon from around our house in Alto Jahuel. Alvaro finds it deep , full of fruit, and good concentration, now its doing malolactic fermentation in barrels , 5 barrels from our homegrown, and one barrel of press.
Monday we harvested one of our two Carmeneres from Escorial, and on tuesday we crushed some Syrah from Alvaros mom in Isla de Maipo. Tomorrow Saturday May 9, full moon we will be crushing our last Carmenere from Escorial. So we hope it goes well.
After the harvest we waited for the moon at the winery with some friends and had an asado al palo , made by Ian our friend. He started at 3 and we ate around 8 at night, beautiful day.
Monday we got the oldest Carmenere we get from Isla de Maipo planted in 1984 by Alvaros father.
Great grapes.
Our press went bad, so we are waiting for it to be repaired as we are starting to press our Cabernet sauvignon from Escorial, after 25 days of total maceration, the ones we crushed on April 17 and 18.
Today May 12 we have our first rain, so its been a very nice harvest season, and now this little rain is very welcome.
So this afternoon just before the rain we sowed our flowers in between the vines, just in time!
We are planning to get our last grapes in from Isla de Maip o during friday and saturday 15, 16 May!

With a beautiful, but a little more chilly-ness, we harvested on Saturday 25 a part of our Syrah. We chose a fruit day [ on the biodynamic calendar] so that we get the best expression of the fruit. The grapes arrived in excellent conditions and very cold. We started  picking at 7 am so by 10:30 we had picked everything and this helped us get the grapes into the tank at 13 celsius for a good start on the cold maceration. We had some visitors from the States as well as Japan– Shinya who came to help out. Over the past few days, we haven’t harvested, as we have been working the vines, the soil, ploughing, and spreading  biodynamic compost as well as preparing to sow our flowers and grasses in between the rows.
We are receiving our first new barrels n these days– ohhh allways a difficult part as they are so expensive..but thats our lot or not!
And more pictures :

Over easter weekend we started a tank of our own home-grown Cabernet fermenting [2.000 lt.]. Thus we have lots of work to do with pump-overs and detestage a.k.a. an “Australian” a.k.a. “un trasiego”. The whole family helped out  as it  was a long weekend and extra collaborators were scarce.
Then, on Friday April 17 we harvested 3.000 kilos of Cabernet Sauvignon from our parcel in Escorial. On Saturday we contonued with more Cabernet and Friday 24 we have our first 2009 must finished and dry. Saturday 25 we shall be harvesting our Syrah from Escorial– 5.000 kilos.

The harvesting conditions have been very good so far. Thus far it is a very dry year and this has allowed for healthy long maturation of the fruit on the vine.

And now more pictures…

Hello friends,

I am Marina and I work with Alvaro at Antiyal. We are just beginning harvest and are going to  try and keep up to date with new information and pictures this harvest. This past Saturday April 4, we started crushing our Cabernet Sauvignon from around the house. We had a terrific visit from Jordan and Jane from New York that came and visited the winery on Friday (and when I told them we were harvesting on Saturday at 6 am they were the first to get here.) Thank you both for being a great help!

This year we have three new machines a modern de-stemer ( Bucher ) and a selection table, and for us it has been like going to the moon!! Before the manual work was very heavy, so we couldn’t believe it when we took like two hours to crush, before it was like 8!!

No more bending over bins to select the grapes, and take leaves and stems out! (We are getting older so we need the help!) This year too we are crushing on our roof like we have always planned. In this way the grapes fall with gravity directly into the fermenters.
Our summer has been a bit hot, but now the nights are cooling down so we hope to get good rippening for our Cabs, Syrahs and Carmenere that are still waiting to be picked.

This year too we will pick a little Petit Verdot we have. This week we haven’t crushed but I think on monday 13 we go on with some of our Syrah.

More pictures coming soon!

This harvest we are going to provide a running account of things happening in the bodega with a “closer to us” feel with little budget for ‘production’. Comments are welcome; do enjoy.

Recent tasting notes: Josh Raynolds
Kuyen – Maipo Valley 2006

($30; 66% syrah and 17% each of cabernet sauvignon and carmenere) Ruby-red. Strong floral and red berry aromas are complemented by cracked pepper and baking spices. Sappy raspberry and blackberry flavors are given spine by tangy acidity and firmed by dusty tannins. Fresh, elegant and precise, with very good finishing clarity and lingering spiciness. Already delicious but balanced to age; I’d hold onto this wine for a few more years.  - 90 points

Antiyal – Maipo Valley 2006

($55; 44% carmenere, 34% cabernet sauvignon and 22% syrah) Ruby with a bright rim. Fresh red berries, flowers and smoky minerals on the nose, with a suave undercurrent of Asian spices. Lively, finely etched raspberry, redcurrant and cherry flavors possess impressive depth but are also quite lithe, with silky tannins adding support. Gains weight and sweetness on the finish, which features notes of black raspberry and floral pastille. This is delicious right now but balanced to reward at least another five years of patience. (Global Vineyard Importers, Berkeley, CA)  - 92 points