Events / Almaviva 2015 Vintage and Vertical Tasting

Join Almaviva and The Drinks Business for this Masterclass which will launch the 2015 Vintage and also showcase some excellent back vintages in a vertical tasting.

Almaviva is a blend of classic Bordeaux varieties grown in some of Chile’s finest terroir and produced with the help of French winemaking knowledge and traditions. It represents a unique partnership in the world of fine wine between Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Château Mouton-Rothschild and Concha y Toro, a partnership created in 1996 with the explicit aim of making an international equivalent to a Bordeaux Grand Cru Classé wine.

In this Masterclass, which will showcase the new 2015 vintage, participants will have the opportunity to taste a number of Almaviva back vintages and be talked through the way in which the vintages have differed over the last 19 years, and to experience the high suitability of the wines to ageing. The 63 hectares used for Almaviva in Puente Alto are situated within Concha Y Toro’s most prestigious vineyard using small parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon as the backbone of the blend in which Carmenère, Cabernet Franc and Merlot also feature in different quantities in each vintage.

The Masterclass will be presented by Almaviva’s Chief Winemaker, Michel Friou and Global Commercial Director Francisco Zilleruelo who will be joined on the panel by The Drinks Business Editor-in-Chief, Patrick Schmitt MW.

Frenchman Michel Friou has worked around the world since graduating from the ‘Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique de Montpellier’ in 1988, including work in the Languedoc and Loire, India and the Far East, and has a lot of fine wine experience including time at Chateau Margaux, Cape Mentelle and Casa Lapostolle with Michel Rolland, before becoming head winemaker at Almaviva in 2007. In the Masterclass Michel will give his thoughts on how he has developed his understanding of the Almaviva terroir and his approach towards selection and producing the cuvee for each vintage to meet with the exacting standards of the very best international fine wine making.