Ed and I have just returned from an eye-opening three day trip to Chile discovering the wines of Viñedo Chadwick, Viña Errazuriz and Viña Seña in situ amongst the stunning South American scenery. Along with other key representatives of the UK fine wine trade, we were invited as guests of Eduardo Chadwick Claro, a charismatic and tireless visionary whose family have been making wine in Chile for over 140 years. His goal is to create internationally recognised fine wines of the highest quality from Chile’s unique terroirs.
Eisele Vineyard is one of the oldest single vineyard estate bottlings in the Napa Valley. Based near Calistoga on hillside plots, the soils for the top bottlings are based on an alluvial fan. After early plantings of Zinfandel and Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon was planted here in the early 1960s. The first bottling of these Cabernet plantings that bore the name Eisele Vineyard came in 1971 when a young Paul Draper (of Ridge fame) made the wine. While now impossibly rare to find, these legendary bottles are apparently still youthful, fresh and balanced, a testament to the terroir here. Subsequently plantings of Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and even a little Viognier have filled out the 15 hectares.
