Seña: Chile's First Growth
Seña is Chilean wine royalty. Since its launch in 1997 with the 1995 vintage, it’s become acknowledged as a Chilean First Growth, a wine fit to rank with the likes of Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Margaux or Chateau Lafite. Comparisons to Chateau Lafite are particularly apt. Seña’s elegance, refinement, sublime concentration and ability to develop over many years are characteristics that have helped make Lafite so iconic.
Leading critics such as Robert Parker, Tim Atkin and James Suckling have consistently awarded Sena sky-high scores with the 2015 and 2021 achieving perfect 100-point marks. In our experience, including a fascinating tasting of historical vintages, Seña deserves its acclaim. Like a Bordeaux First Growth it exhibits dazzling levels of complexity coupled with a wonderful purity of fruit and a structure that allows it to develop over many years. Remarkably, for all its fame and plaudits it remains a relative bargain. The newly released Seña 2022 has scored 98/100 and is available from us for £118 a bottle. A bottle of Mouton Rothschild 2022, a wine that also scored 98, will cost you around £700. So, 1 bottle of Mouton or 6 bottles of the brilliant Seña 2022? Having tasted both, we know where we'd spend the money.
Seña: A Tale of Two Winemakers
Seña is the brainchild of two of the world’s most talented and far-sighted winemakers. In 1991 the godfather of Californian wine, Robert Mondavi, and Chile’s Eduardo Chadwick of Errazuriz renown discussed the possibility of making a world-class wine in Chile. Both were convinced that Chile had the potential to be a centre of fine wine production, it was just a case of finding the right site on which to produce it.
Robert Mondavi’s son Tim and Eduardo began searching for the perfect terroir. Tim was conviced they needed a cooler site to make a fresher, more elegant wine, characteristics that have since become Seña’s hallmarks. They also wanted it to be made sustainably and not to be at risk from contamination form surrounding vineyards so they needed a vineyard that would be relatively self-contained.
After a lengthy search, they chose a spot in the Aconcagua Valley in the foothills of the Andes Mountains. The location was ideal being sheltered by mountains, surrounded by forests and laying on volcanic and colluvial soils on the valley’s slopes. Comprised of a variety of textures with differing proportions of stone content, it’s well-drained gravel and rocky soils with loam to clay-loam textures were just what the team was looking for. With its Mediterranean climate of warm, dry summers, bright sunny days and cold, and rainy winters, it was a vine’s idea of heaven. The proximity of the cold Pacific Ocean added a moderating air, reducing average temperatures which in turn would give a longer growing season. They planted it with a mixture of French and Chilean grapes, with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc being joined by their ancient Bordeaux neighbour, Carménère.
The Seña Style: Classical Meets Modern
In common with all great wines, Seña has its own distinctive style. While Eduardo has long-held Chateau Margaux to be his guiding star, he wasn’t looking to produce a facsimile of a great Bordeaux. Like Robert Mondavi before him, his aim was to create a wine that was of comparable quality to the established classics, but which was a great wine in its own right. The decision to include Carménère in the blend (the 2022 Seña contains 9% Carménère, though the proportion has been as high as 15%) anchors it to Chile and adds a distinctive leafy, pepper and chocolate tone to the finished wine.
Seña conveys a taste of place. The free-draining volcanic soils, cool climate and long growing season all leave indelible birth marks on it. There’s a freshness and elegance that pervades Seña. Despite it having an incredible weight of fruit, it never feels heavy or overblown. Even after several years in bottle, the freshness remains, lifting the fruit and giving it a wondrous clarity and poise.
Structurally it’s well-proportioned with fine grained tannins and firm acidity giving it the backbone to last. Curiously it manages to drink well at a relatively early age. The 2022, one of the stiffer vintages, will hit its stride from 2028 according to winemaker Francisco Baettig.
Tasting the 2022 Seña in August 2024 it was remarkable how much pleasure its already capable of giving. The ample black and red berry fruits coat the polished tannins so beautifully that it’s hard to resist its charms now.
Seña does age brilliantly. Tasting the 1998 in March of this year it was amazing how fresh and vibrant it remained. Youthful fruit tones of blackcurrants and plums having been joined by secondary notes of black figs, woodsmoke and earth before the cleansing red fruit acidity swept in at the finish. In great years such as 2020, 2021 and 2022 it’s easy to see it having the potential for at least two decades of positive evolution in the bottle.
2020 Rocas de Seña: The Second Wine That Isn’t A Second Wine
In 2020 Seña launched the Rocas de Seña. It can be seen as Seña’s second wine as some of the fruit for it comes from the Seña vineyard, but the blend is different. Rocas de Seña blends Bordeaux with Mediterranean varietals to showcase Chile’s extraordinary capacity for producing exceptional Malbec. The 2022 Rocas de Seña is 33% Malbec, 25% Syrah, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot, 7% Mourvèdre and 5% Grenache. Exotic and intense, having tasted the 2021 and the 2022 we can say this is one of the most exciting wines to come out of Chile in a long time, and at just £52 a bottle, the Rocas de Sena 2022is also one of the best value fine wines on the market.
Seña 2022: The Winemaker’s View
To get an insider’s view on all things Seña we spoke to winemaker Francisco Baettig to get his take on the Seña and Rocas de Seña 2022.
2022 was another lovely vintage for Seña, what do you think are the drinking windows for the Seña 2022 and the Rocas de Seña 2022?
Despite being dry, the 2022 vintage had wonderful conditions, but it was overlooked due to 2021 vintage. The 2022 spring was warm, the perfect temperature, allowing for fantastic flowering and fruit set. The summer was slightly cooler, giving great hang time allowing for perfect ripening of the bunches. The freshness, acidity, and colour this gave to the wines was outstanding. They are wines of great balance and purity. Yet, the 2022 is different to 2021 as it has more structure, the quality of the fruit has more depth and a concentrated power, yet still retains the beautiful finesse and elegance.
Sena - Look to approach this in 6-7 years’ time - with a drinking window of 10+ years. With the 2022 the tannins are present, but silky and ripe, it has amazing structure and texture. The fruit is black/dark, so rounder, more depth, concentrated with complexity, it needs time to grow and evolve
Rocas – Made to be drunk more in its youth. Drink in 2-3 years’ time – for the next 8-10 years. Intense, exuberant more fruit driven - the 2022 is the best version I have ever produced – it has come of age. Lovely chalky tannins, freshness; the heart of Rocas is the intense pure fruit, it is exquisite.
Rocas de Seña is described as, 'A unique blend of Malbec, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Mourvèdre and Grenache'. Was this purely a reflection of the vintage or do you see some fluidity in terms of Rocas’ blend given this is only the third vintage?
This is the third vintage to be released, 2020 was the first. Its style is a blend of Bordeaux and Mediterranean varietals, the percentage of which varies each year – The ‘Bordeaux varietals’ Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Sena vineyards and the Mediterranean varieties are from the lower vineyards – La Vertientes. The blend will always stay similar and is always going to show the beauty of Malbec. This is what gives the wine the intensity of fruit. The 2022 is 33% Malbec, 25% Syrah, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot, 7% Mourvèdre and 5% Grenache. We want this wine to be something everyone opens and enjoys whilst the Sena is growing!
You obviously believes in biodynamic, what do you think it brings to Seña?
Sena is a ‘Clos’ a single vineyard situation, so you can manage it very well and in a very respectful way of the soil and environment – there are no surrounding estates to impact the environment – cross contamination – so it works very well atSeña, it has very healthy soil and microorganisms. This makes for very healthy vines. This also naturally keeps the production levels low. This all imparts into the wine, it makes unique, having its own personality and character
What was the production of these wines?
The production of the wines is very small;Seña would be the equivalent of a top First Growth (so between 40-50 hectolitres per hectare, which is tiny). Rocas, we make just over first growth quantities – all dependant on the vintage.
Leaving aside the out of this world 2021, how does the 2022 Seña rank amongst Seña vintages?
I really think this is one of the exceptional vintages I have made, above 19, 16 – it is near to 2018 in terms of quality. It is a little bit more restrained in its youth, so it makes it hard to read a little tighter on the nose and palate, but I think this is an overlooked vintage. 2022 will blossom in the cellar and be fantastic.
Buy Rocas de Seña and Seña 2022
We have managed to secure an allocation of the Rocas de Seña 2022and Seña 2022as well as some rare, older vintages of mature Seña. These are available for immediate delivery, and we’d urge you to try these amazing wines for yourself. They are a revelation and will doubtless become collector’s wines.
