Errázuriz La Cumbre Syrah 2018

La Cumbre is from a selection of the oldest syrah vineyards that Errazuriz began to plant on its Aconcagua property, in the early 1990s, when little or nothing was known about that grape in Chile. Winemaker Francisco Baettig has been changing the style of this wine since 2016, gaining freshness and reducing extractions and the influence of oak. And this seems to be the year in which those changes are most clearly evident – the fruits are shown head-on, attracting all the attention without the least bit of timidity amid a network of tannins that are firm yet very fine. A wine that needs several years in the bottle to begin to show complexity. And it doesn’t need big body or tremendous concentration to do that – it will evolve in the bottle with just that fruit, that acidity, and that fine tannic structure. Score – 96. (Patricio Tapia, guiadescorchados.cl, 2021)