2015 Casas del Bosque Gran Reserva Syrah Casablanca Valley 750 ml

A year ago, even after a revelatory blind tasting convinced the Wine Access brass that we could sell a Chilean wine for more than $15, we knew we were asking our clients to make a leap of faith. What a difference a year makes. Those of you who trusted our judgment stocked your cellars with a couple masterful Bordeaux-blends and many of you locked into our Hermitage look-alike from the #1 winery in Chile. Here’s the good news: The 2015 Casas del Bosque Gran Reserva Syrah from Casablanca Valley is the latest release. Like the wines of Hermitage, the Casas del Bosque is grown in ancient granitic clay, which imbues the red-fruited wine with a gorgeous linear quality. Eleven months in 45 percent new oak provides a beautiful firm backbone, and it all adds up to one of the more stunning values we have ever found. Now for the bad: the Wine Access clients who bought in last year are already believers. The previous vintage earned 80 combined 4- and 5-star reviews. This release, at $17.99 per bottle, is sure to light up the scoreboard as well. Translation: Don’t be the one reading “sold out.”

In blind tastings, Chile’s best wines — elite Cabernet Sauvignons along with a handful of the brilliant Syrahs, Sauvignon Blancs, and Chardonnays from cool-climate Casablanca Valley — outpoint their French and American counterparts of twice the price. Case in point is Casas del Bosque, which has been hailed as the #1 Chilean Winery of the Year by the International Wine & Spirits Competition. Yet importers and retailers refuse to take notice. So for years, we treated it like an unwritten law: Nothing above $15 from Chile, period.

That was until the 2014 Casas del Bosque Gran Reserva Syrah Casablanca Valley captivated  everybody around the Wine Access tasting table. Many guessed it was from the Northern Rhône. Some were convinced it was a Santa Barbara Syrah.

The amazing versatility of the Casas del Bosque is due to its unique growing environment. Like the fruit from Australia’s world-class Barossa Valley, most of Chile’s vines bask in the intense heat of a scorching sun, which tends to produce more high-octane, jammier styles of Syrah. But the high-elevation, cool-climate Casablanca Valley also mimics the conditions of the steep slopes of Hermitage, which enables a handful of growers to produce miniscule amounts of elegant, Old World-style Syrah.

Casas del Bosque’s Syrah vineyards yield only 1.8 tons of concentrated fruit per acre. That tiny amount is all harvested by hand, the same way much of the winery work at Casas del Bosque — from the selection of individual berries to the punchdowns of the must (unfermented grape juice) — is performed. It’s almost miraculous that the end result of such a painstaking process can be had for $17.99. We have been on board since our first taste, as have the Wine Access clients who took advantage last year. With the new vintage, we are looking forward to making some new converts.

— Wine Access Wine Team