酿酒是平衡的艺术——智利干露酒厂魔爵红酿酒师专访

文:王智慧 | 葡萄酒在线

干露酒厂(Concha Y Toro)创立于1883年,是智利最大的葡萄酒业集团之一,世界上第一家在纽约证券交易所进行交易的葡萄酒厂,也是全球最大的葡萄园拥有者。旗下有与法国木桐合作的被誉为智利酒王的活灵魂(Almaviva)、阿根廷的风之语(Bodega Trivento)等多个极富盛名的酒庄。

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干露酒厂的明珠,首款魔爵红(Don Melchor)面世于1987年,以干露酒厂创始人唐梅尔乔(Don Melchor)的名字命名。酒庄坐落于雄伟的安第斯山脚下,迈波河边,毗邻活灵魂的葡萄园,山水如画,拥有据说世界上最适合赤霞珠的生长的风土之一,在《葡萄酒观察家》(Wine Spectator)、《葡萄酒与烈酒》(Wine Spirits)、《葡萄酒爱好者》(Wine Enthusiast)等许多国际重量级主办方举办的评选中拿奖拿到手软,几乎是智利获奖最多的葡萄酒。与干露酒厂旗下其他熠熠生辉的品牌相较之下毫不逊色。

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9月10日下午,我们有幸在北京葡道参加了魔爵红四个获奖年份(1988、2005、2010、2011)的品鉴会,并对自1997年起担任魔爵红首席酿酒师的Enrique Tirado进行了专访。Enrique其人如他的酒,风度优雅,谦和内敛,执着于风土,苛求完美。他自1993起就加入干露酒厂,从此扎根于此,年复一年,带领Don Melchor稳稳的占据着智利葡萄酒的领军位置。

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1.Don Melchor的葡萄园被分成7个区,并由7个区的葡萄混酿而成,混酿中各个区块所占的比例是如何决定的呢?

“Don Melchor的葡萄来自安第斯山脚下的葡恩朵(Puente Alto)葡萄园,有着含有碎石、粘土、和石子的复杂土壤。根据土壤类型和结构整个葡萄园被分成7个区,6个种植赤霞珠,1个种植品丽珠。同时这127公顷的葡萄园还被更精细的按照葡萄树势等自身特点再次细分为147个小地块,每块不到1公顷,各自标记,最终产出的葡萄酿出的酒在单宁的细致程度,酸度,果香浓度和类型,以及风味上都不尽相同,有自己的特性。最后再将这些赤霞珠混合在一起,口感上也因此具有无以伦比的复杂性,同时必须保证完美的平衡度。在选择上,根据气候条件和收获情况,有时南边的葡萄用的多,有时北边的用的多,但基本上每一年,这七个区的葡萄我们都会用到。”

“具体来说,我们每一年都不停的进行大量尝试,将不同小地块的葡萄进行混合,并在反复的品尝中选择出最好的,每天差不多要尝100到150款。“最好的”定义不止是品质,还有很重要的一点是个性,这必须是一款清晰的体现出Don Melchor一贯特有风格的,一款能够忠实表达智利,表达安第斯山脉和葡恩朵葡萄园的风土(Terroir)的葡萄酒。”

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2. Don Melchor有时会添加一些品丽珠,哪些年份会添加,作用是什么?

“确实如此,1987年,首瓶Don Melchor发行;1995年,添加了3%的梅乐;我自1997年开始接管Don Melchor;1999年添加了品丽珠,2000年没有,此后根据当年的气候情况和混合、尝试的结果,品种均以赤霞珠为主,但有时会添加1%-9%的品丽珠,为酒体增加一些复杂度、圆润感和柔软度,以及一些果香和香料的味道。关于比例制定,我们自Don Melchor始发之年起,就邀请波尔多五大一级酒庄中,四家的酿酒顾问Jacques Boissenot,以及其他一些来自波尔多的专家顾问,每年参与葡萄挑选并商定最终调配方案。”

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3. 在您心里,Don Melchor哪个年份是最出色,或者最特别的呢?

“(笑)人人都问这个问题。这都像是你的孩子,都是最好的,没法挑出一个。不过最近的2010和2011年确实是让我很开心的两年,你可以现在喝,能够感受到它拥有惊人的陈年潜力,但没有紧涩感,单宁细致,表现优雅,而且所有的特征能够达到非常好的平衡。”

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4.智利独特的地理、气候条件很适合发展有机以及生物动力法种植,这两年也非常流行,您是否也有采取这方面的措施?

“我们采取了有机管理方式,生物动力也有一些,比如使用有机化肥,耕作时会参考月亮的盈缺。但并没有申请生物动力认证,也暂时没有这方面的打算。我们不想采用单一作业,混合的管理方式会增加酒的复杂度。可持续发展在我看来包括三个要素:一,尊敬环境;二,员工的稳定和能动性;三,经济和产品的持续性。”

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5. 你对智利葡萄酒在中国市场的发展有何预期?从整个葡萄酒行业来说,与其他国家竞争有何优势?

“我能够感受到客户对于我们的酒在逐渐增长的热情,他们与我们一同期盼着成熟季。这里有最适合葡萄生长的风土,每一年产出品质稳定的,无可取代的葡萄酒。最近几年,我们一直在努力的推广高端精品葡萄酒——智利是可以生产出世界最高水准的葡萄酒的。我们非常重视中国市场,这是我第二次来中国,第三次来亚洲,因为真是太远了。但以后我应该会每年都来一次,宣传Don Melchor和智利葡萄酒文化。”

干露酒厂中国区市场总监Lydia补充说,“自7月开始,中国成为最大的智利葡萄酒进口国,这之前第一名的位置一直都是美国和欧洲。而智利在中国市场的推广工作也很努力。智利葡萄酒协会(Wines of Chile)近年来在中国组织开展了很多活动,包括前不久的智利周系列的葡萄酒品鉴、晚宴,努力让中国消费者了解到智利葡萄酒最好的样子。李克强总理今年访问智利时,也走访了干露酒厂,并品尝了我们2010年份的酒,也是由于智利协会的安排和引荐。而中国的消费者对于葡萄酒的了解也有非常大的提高,5年前可能还没有人知道Grand Cru是什么意思,但是现在他们大多数都受过良好的葡萄酒教育,能说的出来知名葡萄品牌,知道活灵魂是和木桐酒庄合作的葡萄酒,那这个酒一定很不错。在品尝和比较之后,能说出不同和好处。懂的如何品尝和欣赏一款酒,这非常重要。”

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Don Melchor 品鉴笔记:
1988:中等酸度,单宁细腻丝滑,柔和,黑果香气仍然充沛,透出咖啡、烟草、雪茄、皮革的味道,口感浓郁,回味悠长。已至巅峰。
2005:黑李子,无花果,香料,坚果,咖啡,巧克力,还有一些矿物的味道。单宁成熟圆润,结构紧凑,正值最好的状态,酒体复杂优雅,结构清晰,表现出非常出色的平衡感。
2010: 新鲜精致的果香,包括草本和可可气息,还能感受到一些烟灰和铁锈,单宁柔滑,酒体平衡,回味长且丰富。
2011:果香非常新鲜丰沛,透出一些花香和矿物,单宁成熟细腻,一定的复杂度,略显年轻但能够预期到出色的陈年潜力,回味依然很长。

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A Brief Description of Development of Modern Chile Wine Regions

A Brief Description of  Development of Modern Chile Wine Regions

Text & Photo by Maxime LU

After diminishing for 10 years, China’s tariff on Chilean wines has finally been reduce to zero, Chilean wine thus once again become the focus of importers. It also has a special significance: in particular since CCP’s policy to clampdown in gifting to officials and ostentatious display of wealth in 2012; the global economic downturn; the repeatedly tightened country’s economic policy; transformation of the wine market and consumer consumption concept matures. All of these factors have shifted the market from its corporate and official consumption market, to a personal consumption-based market. With its high price-performance and diversity, Chilean wines naturally became more and more the choice of consumers.

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Apalta region/photo by Maxime LU

Chilean wine price-performance is usually the most mentioned advantages, which I will not repeat here, let’s focus on a keypoint of its diversity this time: the timeline of discovery of its wine regions, and its latest development in the “Wild Times” of last four decades. In the last century, due to political and other factors, the development of the Chilean wine industry was slow before 70s, the development of the modern wine industry was basically began in the late 70s, so the last four decades has been a period that represented the development and changes of modern Chilean appellations.

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Let’s briefly introduce Chile and its wine regions here. Chile is a Panhandle land, to the west is the Pacific Ocean, with more than 4000 kilometers of coastline, stretching to the east is the towering Andes, to the south is the Antarctica ice sheet, to the north is the Atacama Desert, Chile is just over 100 km in width averagely and an earthquake-prone zone, which further contributes to its extremely complex and diverse land features, topography, soil types and micro-climate.

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In 1979, the famous Spanish winemaker Miguel Torres (Miguel Torres) arrived Chile and started making wine in Curico valley. His arrival has since opened a new chapter in the Chilean wine industry, which is often considered to be the beginning of modern wine industry. He was the first who introduced the advanced temperature-control stainless steel fermentation tank, French oak barrels, and clones of few varietals, all of these have revolutionized development of both viticulture and wine-making technology of Chile.

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1980s – Started exploring the coastal area and began to develop vineyards at the Andes foothills areas. In 1982, Pablo Morandé opened vineyard in the cold and windy Casablanca Valley after visiting Los Carneros Region, California. (Los Carneros located at the junction of Napa and Sonoma ).

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Then in the 1990s, Chilean gradually developed a new batch of excellent wine regions throughout the country:
1993 – Limari Valley
1993 – Bio Bio Valley
1995 – Malleco Valley
1997 – Elqui Valley
1998 – San Antonio Valley

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In 2007 Fundo Lechagua Winery started up a vineyard at Chiloe Island, more than 1100km south of Santiago. Vina Momberg located near the Lake Districct town of Osorno, started producing Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.

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In 2012, to facilitate management, Chilean Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) has declared three official wine producing zone: the coastal area (Costa), the Andes area (Andes) and the between mountain ranges area (Entre Cordilleras), covering areas throughout Chile.

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In 2013, Marcelo Papa, winemaker of Chile’s largest wine group Concha y Toro, mentioned during his interview with Decanter that Chile is constantly in search of suitable terroir to develop vineyard in the new viticultural area, making it one of the world’s most active wine producing countries.

Throughout the last few decades, although Chile has opened up quite a lot wine-producing areas and developed a number of regions with unique terroir, from its north to Copiapo Valley and Huasco Valley of Atacama Region, from it south to the Cautin Valley and Osorno Valley, but Chile still has great potential to be tapped. There are certainly a huge development space of the Chilean wine industry.

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wine map of chile