2012 Seña Red
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Tasting notes
The 2012 Seña is the product of a warm year combined with the peak of the overripe, oaky approach in style. A blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Carménère, 12% Merlot, 7% Malbec and 6% Petit Verdot aged for 22 months in two thirds new French barrels. Garnet red in hue. The sun and heat made their mark on the nose, which is jammy with soy sauce aromas. It’s potent in the mouth with somewhat dry tannins. It has evolved more rapidly than other vintages.
Critic scores
James Suckling
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Carmenère, 12% Merlot, 7% Malbec, 6% Petit Verdot. A moderately warm growing season with low rainfall meant very healthy grapes. Hand-picked and sorted by hand. Stainless-steel fermentation, three pumpovers per day. Total maceration time ranged from 9–40 days. Aged for 22 months in French oak barrels (70% new). Deep crimson. Really quite restrained on the nose. Still lots of acidity and a little bit of leafiness. Just a little austere. Maybe a tad too much Carmenère for comfort? Oak still a little evident on the palate. (JR)
Dark crimson. Sweet and rather gorgeous direct ripe Cabernet. No underripe notes. Great balance. Just a hint of rawness but really very well done. (JR)
Opaque ruby. Heady aromas of black raspberry, cedar, fresh tobacco, vanilla and floral oils. Juicy and expansive in the mouth, showing alluringly sweet cherry, dark berry and spicecake flavors and a hint of succulent herbs. This is displaying a lot of Bordeaux-like character. Shows excellent clarity and lift thanks to tangy acidity, which adds cut to the strikingly long, spicy, gently tannic finish.
About the producer
Seña – literally meaning “signal” – was Chile’s first icon wine. In the early 1990s, the country had a reputation mainly for lower-end, high-volume wines, but Eduardo Chadwick, owner and president of Viña Errázuriz, set out to change that.