A Sip of Nostalgia at Monteviejo’s Breathtaking Montevista
One of the highest ratings we have given a wine....came from Monteviejo. We had to vistit!
Jan de Weerd
This will hide itself!
A Sip of Nostalgia at Monteviejo’s Breathtaking Montevista
One of the highest ratings we have given a wine....came from Monteviejo. We had to vistit!
New Year’s Eve 2020, in the depth of winter at our cozy cabin in the mountains, warming up around the fire place, we opened up the 2005 Linda Flor… it put us under its spell. It was in our top 5 most amazing, memorable wines we had ever experienced. We had to visit the winery that created this wine. Driving up to the winery was like a fairytale. It was breathtaking. The snowcapped mountains were brightly shining lit up by the sun in a cloudless blue sky.
The Monteviejo estate in Clos de los Siete
The Linda Flor is produced by Bodegas Monteviejo. The name means old mountain, but it should have been called Montavista because the view of the Andes mountains was spectacular. The 150 hectares estate is nestled almost right up against the Andes that rise majestically above the site. The estate is part of Clos de los Siete, a 850 hectare of vineyard development in which five other wineries have located their estate.
Posing in front of the Monteviejo estate framed by the Andes Mountains
The story behind Linda Flor
Arriving at the winery, we readied ourselves with great anticipation for the tour to discover the story behind the elusive Linda Flor 2005. The winery is owned by a French family who named Monteviejo after one of their beloved Chateaux in Bordeaux called Montveil, French for, you guessed it, old mountain. The vines in the 150 hectare estate were tightly trimmed and trellised close to the ground as you will find in Bordeaux.
The grapes for Linda Flor start their journey from the vineyard, hand picked, destemmed by machine and placed directly in small oak barrels of 225 liters, called barriques. The grapes are cold macerated (using dry ice!) for 15 days while being stirring daily to break the skins and release the juice. After that initial period natural yeast is added, the temperature in the room is increased, and fermentation starts in all earnest. The whole process is concluded after about 40 days after which the free juice is released from the barriques and the remaining solids are pressed to gain the last bit of juice. Oak is a major ingredient in the wine making process at Monteviejo. French oak that is and you could readily pick that up in the wines we tasted. For Linda Flor the regime is 40% new oak and 60% one time used oak; aged for 24 months.
The Linda Flor is aged for 24 months in barriques
In vino veritas - in wine, there is truth
We got to taste the Linda Flor 2017. It broke the spell. For us, it did not hold the promise for a potential repeat of the experience of the 2005. There was a green note on the finish and I don’t think the dark fruit underneath the tight but polished fine grained tannins seemed concentrated enough for a flavor explosion once the oak would give up its grip. But, not all was lost as there were still the mesmerizing 2005 Linda Flor bottles available for sale. The price, however, had increased to about $650/bottle 😳. Alas, we decided to just savor our wonderful memories of that New Year’s Eve evening at our cozy cabin in our mountains.
