Massal 1945 Cabernet Sauvignon

Massal 1945 Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the oldest plots in the Almahue Valley belonging to the D.O. Rapel Valley.
This small valley is planted with only 360 hectares of vineyards. Almahue has one of the oldest vineyards in Chile.
The history of viticulture in this valley begins with the Spanish colonisation in the 17th and 17th centuries.
Around 1933 our ancestors introduced French varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which was later found to be Carménère.

GENERAL CONDITIONS OF THE CLIMATE OF THE ALMAHUE VALLEY
The Almahue Valley is located 113 km southeast of Santiago, 65 km from the Pacific Ocean and 45 km from the Andes Mountains.
Rainfall is concentrated during the winter, averaging over 550 mm. During the months
From October to April, temperatures are warm, with no rain. There are often cool breezes in the afternoons and cooler temperatures in the evenings. We benefit from a wide temperature fluctuation between day and night, which is a key factor for colour concentration and tannin quality. Slow ripening allows the grapes to achieve the ideal ripeness, to preserve fruit character and natural acidity, which ensure good ageing potential.
Our property has a mountainous and volcanic topography, with granitic rocks in varying degrees of decomposition, with elements of quartz and iron oxide.
In the lower areas, there is a strong fragmentation of the rocks, which eventually results in soils made up of thin layers of clays and silts that gravitate down from the mountains.

WINEMAKING
As a general philosophy, at Clos de Luz we seek elegance, balance and ageing potential. We want to reflect the characteristics of our land, Almahue, through a process of natural production and minimal intervention.
Our key points are a much earlier harvest and manual 100% in small 14 kg boxes.

The Cabernet Sauvignon is fermented in concrete vats and in a 12,000 litre Taransaud oak foudre and the process is carried out spontaneously with native yeasts.
The extraction methods are gentle and are determined daily by tasting.
Massal 1945 wines have no added chemicals, only small doses of sulphites before bottling, for their correct preservation.
Within our old Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards, there is a smaller percentage of other varieties of the same age, mainly Malbec.
This is why the 2020 blend corresponds to 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from 2 old quarters of the estate.

AGEING
A 40% of the wine spends 12 months in French Oak barrels of various uses, 10% of the wine is aged for 10 months in a concrete vat and 44% in a Taransaud foudre of 7.000 lts and the remaining 6% in new French Oak Sylvain barrels of 500lts.
This wine is stabilised naturally, thanks to the low temperatures in the valley during the winter, without the use of any chemical products.