Reviews
-Descorchados -
-Decanter -
-Robert Parker's Wine Advocate -
-Vinous -
Technical Details
- 42% Syrah, 25% Grenache, 20% Petit Verdot, 5% Petite Sirah, 8% Touriga Nacional
- Marcelo Retamal
- Spain
- Coquimbo
- Elqui Valley
- Sustainable Practices
- fermented in stone lagars with native yeast
- aged in 1,600L concrete eggs, 2,500L wooden foudres and 6,000L tronconic tanks for 10 months
- 13.5%
Viñedos de Alcohuaz Grus de Alcohuaz Elqui Valley 2020
Sustainable Practices
Multi-Bottle Discount
$14.97 on 6+ bottles!
58% OFF RETAIL!
Viñedos de Alcohuaz is one of the more thrilling projects in Chilean wine, and its Grus bottling is the ideal introduction to the estate. It bears a warranted 95 points from Descorchados – a leading guide to South American wines – and 93 from Decanter… and you can get this pretty, floral thing for UNDER $15 a bottle on 6 or more!
Viñedos de Alcohuaz was founded in 2005 high in the rocky Andean foothills of the Alta Elqui Valley in northern Chile, where grapes have grown on the estate for over a century. The vineyard parcels for Grus sit between roughly 1,720 and 2,206 meters, among the highest planted in the Southern Hemisphere. This is austere, high-desert country just below the Atacama, where snowmelt is essentially the only water source, and the granitic soils are so poor that historically these grapes mostly became pisco rather than wine.
The project was the hunch of Alvaro Flaño – who bet that serious wine could be coaxed from this granite – and it's forged in the cellar by Marcelo "Reta" Retamal, one of Chile's most respected winemakers and a leading voice in the country's return to low-intervention, site-driven wine. The winemaking remains deliberately old-fashioned – foot-trodden grapes in stone lagares, fermented with wild yeasts, and aged in concrete eggs and neutral vessels rather than new oak – the goal being to capture the mountain rather than the cellar. Grus is named for the southern constellation of the crane, a nod to the Elqui Valley's famously clear skies, which make it one of the world's great stargazing regions and home to several major observatories.
The 2020 Grus de Alchohuaz is a Syrah-led blend finished with Garnacha and dashes of Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah, and Touriga Nacional, fermented about half whole-cluster and raised in mostly concrete for about twelve months. The wine is gloriously fruity and floral – with violets, raspberries, black cherries, and wild garrigue – framed by cracked pepper and river stone-esque minerality. It’s scrumptiously medium-bodied with crunchy-bright acidity – and only 13.5% ABV – giving it a light, very pretty, very easy-to-sip vibe that we’re delighted by. Six bottles for under $15 is a complete bargain – and trust that you’ll want at LEAST that many!
FOOD PAIRINGS: This lighter style of red is just dandy alongside fish – and a traditional “corvina al horno” (baked corvina sea bass) with a pile of fresh herbs and lemon would be splendid.