Odfjell, Armador Merlot, Maipo, Chile

All Chilean wines are fruity, straightforward and smell of fruit pastilles. So it can seem sometime but Odfjell’s wines have a bit more going on. Owned by the Odfjell family from Norway, also owners of ships, drilling platforms and much else, Odfjell Wines was created in the 1990’s and now has vineyards in several sites around Chile in order to match better the grape variety with the terroir. Some vineyards have been planted by the family, some were purchased, for example their 100 year old plus vines near Cauquenes. All are farmed biodynamically - organic plus in effect - and most without irrigation. They use horses to work in the vineyards, bee from their own hives plus chickens and sheep to enhance the biodiversity, keep the grass down and for pest control. The winery was designed to use gravity as much rather than pumps - kinder on the wine - and passive cooling strategies - kinder on energy use.

This wine is mostly Merlot but with a dollop of Syrah for a bit of mid palate fruit and spice. Plenty of fruit - figs, cherries, touches of violet - it also spent a few months on old oak to develop fine tannin structure.