“This was a superb year for Alto Jahuel our Casa Real 2020 reflects the balance and great depth of this fantastic vintage. The wine has an intense and deep ruby red color, showing pure aromas of blackcurrants, strawberries, graphite and so spicy notes. The mouth is concentrated and precise with polished tannins that add texture. The wine showing rened tannins with a long and persistent finish.” - Sebastián Labbé, Winemaker

The 2020 harvest for Casa Real was one of the hottest vintages of the decade. A challenging year that encourage very precise vineyard management to cope with the dry and hot growing conditions. The wines are concentrated and powerful, although maintaining the elegance and vibrancy given by the Andes Mountains influence.

The season started started with low soil moisture, due to the dry winter in 2019 with only 76 mm of rain. We decided to irrigate during winter to achieve good soil moisture for early spring. Bud burst started on September 15th and was very homogeneous due to the warm and frost free weather, the vines canopy grew quick and by the beginning of flowering the vegetative growth was very controlled. Veraison started during the first week of January and was completely finished by January 18th. The rest of the summer was again warm with temperatures higher than historic averages until the second week of March when we decided to start our harvest with good tannin ripening, balanced acidity and sugar content. The grapes were picked between March 10th and March 23rd being one of our earliest harvest in history reaching 1787 GDD in Alto Jahuel.

The climate is sub-humid Mediterranean. Rainfall is primarily concentrated in the winter, with an average annual historic precipitation updated of 225 mm. Spring is normally cool and dry, and summers are hot with temperatures that exceed 30ºC. The infuence of the Andes Mountains causes differences of more than 18ºC between daytime and nighttime temperatures. Temperatures begin to drop in late summer, allowing the grapes to ripen gradually with good fruit concentration and proper tannin maturation.

The Santa Rita Alto Jahuel Estate is located at the foothills of the Andes Ranges. The vineyard soils are of alluvial origin with an 80–100 cm top layer of a loam. This old alluvial terraces provides a great drainage due to the high presence of rounded stones, gravels, and coarse sand. The presence of clay deep into the soil layers ensures ideal water retention and allows vine roots to stretch deep into the earth to survive.

The grapes were hand harvested in 15 kg picking tray and transported to the winery. The grapes were able to cool overnight for early processing during the next morning. The 2020 vintage was dry and hot although balanced providing ideal ripening. Resulting in concentrated and ripe tannins with very pure flavors. Alcoholic fermentation took place in small stainless steel and concrete tanks with temperatures ranging from 24-26° C. The extraction program was done using pump overs and delestage, decided daily by tasting, being more intensive at the beginning of the fermentation and extremely delicate towards the end. Once dry, the tanks were sealed and kept macerated with its skins for an extra 4-6 days prior draining. The skins were pressed using a vertical basket press, the press wines were separated, matured and are a key component of the final blend. Our Casa Real 2020 was aged in barrels for 20 months using 85 % new and 15 % second year old French oak barrels gaining balance, complexity and elegance. The wine was bottled without any filtration or clarification.