If you are a Bordeaux or Biodynamic wine lover, Antiyal from Chile should be on your radar.
If you’re a fan of top Chilean Bordeaux variety wines like Seña, Clos Apalta, Almaviva, Vik, or Montes Purple Angel, then you should consider other lesser known top Chilean wines like Domus Aurea, Aquitania Lazuli and Antiyal at half the price or less. All three are located on the foothills of the Andes in the Maipo Valley. In addition, all three veer towards Bordeaux in style rather than New World, modern styles like in Napa or from Montes in Chile. Today, I’m spotlighting Antiyal.
Antiyal at a Glance
I haven’t tasted Antiyal sinceI started this blog, so I finally got the chance to revisit their entire lineup and feature them in a blog post since they had impressed me before. I’ve mentioned them in previous posts because they make one of my favorite premium Carmeneres, which is a unique, pure, unoaked Carmenere. They’ve also done a special, locally distributed, artist label wine, which I reviewed, but I haven’t reviewed their regular lineup wines, which can be found in Europe, the US and China too.
Antiyal was founded in 1996 by Bordeaux trained Chilean winemaker Alvaro Espinoza and his wife. It has remained a small, family run winery since, only producing around 50,000 bottles a year. Their wines are low intervention and certified organic/Biodynamic. In fact, Alvarez is considered one of the pioneers of Biodynamic wines in South America. Their premium wines come from their own 10 hectare estate while their Pura Fe line grapes are purchased from organic farmers in Maipo.
As with many Chilean producers, their top wines have names from the native Mapuche language. The top two wines are labeled Antiyal, which means “sons of the sun.” One is a blend while the other that is all Carmenere is labeled “El Escorial,” for the name of their vineyard. They also produce a third premium wine called Kuyen, which means “moon,” in reference to the Biodynamic cycle they follow. They consider it a second wine to their top wines.
Their top 2 wines cost around $60 while the Kuyen is about half of that, and their Pura Fe entry level wines cost about half the price of the Kuyen.
Tasting Notes
2021 Antiyal Pura Fe Garnacha-Syrah Maipo
70% Garnacha 30% Syrah. 10 months in French oak. Shy nose. Mild oak. Red fruit with high acid on the palate. Medium-bodied. Chalky tannins. Some savory notes on the backend. At the moment, it needs food with its high-acid. One expects more ripe fruit from Garnacha but this one is austere and tangy. 86+
2022 Antiyal Pura Fe Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo
10 months in oak. The best of the Pura Fe line today. More integrated oak. More tannic but more fruit to go along with the acidic structure. At the same time, I would still wait longer or give it a decant for the tannins to soften more. 89+
2022 Antiyal Pura Fe Carmenere Maipo
12 months in French oak. Nose of mild oak and dried herbal notes. Medium-bodied. Soft feel but lingering tannins that should be fine with food. Darker fruit than the Escorial but still medium+ acid and higher acid than average Chilean Carmenere. Oak notes. Savory notes. Also more of a food wine. Could use a bit less oak and a bit more fruit. This could integrate better with time. 88+
2019 Antiyal Kuyen Maipo
Blend of Syrah, Cabernet S., Carmenere, and Petit Verdot. 12 months in French oak. Darkest of all the wines in their lineup. Darker fruit. Full, round with ripe but present and youthful tannins. Lower acid than the others, but still medium acid. Chocolate, leather and dark fruit. Could still integrate and soften more. 90+
2020 Antiyal Viñedo Escorial Carmenere Maipo
Aged 12 months in concrete egg. Bright red fruit nose with dried herbal, tobacco notes. Touch of mint but not as obviously Chilean as some with its green notes. Full, rich dark red fruit on the palate up front. Savory and fresh on the backend with some peppery notes. Elegant feel with silky tannins. Alcohol is a little too present without food. Darker, riper and more alcohol than I remember from previous vintages but it’s more powerful. Still more red fruit and fresh than your average Carmenere, but I wouldn’t want to see it pushed anymore towards a modern style. It’s more unique this way as a red fruited, unoaked, higher-end Carmenere. It should continue to evolve. 92+
2018 Antiyal Maipo
This and the Escorial Carmenere are their top wines. 45% Carmenere, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Syrah. This reminds me of high-quality Bordeaux. First of all, it’s more open than the Escorial. Second, it absorbs the oak the best out of all the oaked wines in the lineup despite spending the most time in oak (18 months) and having some new oak (33%). There are savory herbal, tomato leaf notes on the nose which are fairly common for Chilean Cab or Carmenere. It holds the alcohol better than the Escorial too. However, it’s 2 years older, so it should be better integrated. 2018 was also the better vintage. Red and dark fruit Elegant and seamless. Soft tannins. Medium+ acid. Well-structured. Some mintiness. Similar style to the Escorial but with oak and a bit more age although it could evolve and improve some more. 94+
Conclusion
As a whole, all these wines show some tannic and acidic structure for potential aging while remaining elegant in feel and relatively light on the oak. They all eventually rounded out in terms of tannins and acid without losing fruit several days on. All of them have red fruit components rather than just ripe dark fruit. If you’re looking to try some of their wines, their top Carmenere stands out among most Chilean Carmeneres while the rest of their lineup have more of an Old World feel and are better with food when young. In fact, their premium wines were perfect with steak 3 days after opening as more of the fruit started to come out and the acid cut through the fat.
Have you tried Antiyal or other top Chilean wines? Let me know what you think in the comments.