Seña 2021: An Exceptional Vintage of Chile’s First Icon Wine
This Bordeaux-style blend from the Aconcagua Valley unveils its outstanding and age-worthy 2021 vintage, an exceptional year with ideal conditions resulting in a vibrant wine of great purity.
It was only twenty years ago, when the results of the Berlin Tasting were read on January 23, 2004, and the experienced wine writers, critics, and buyers in the room were floored: In a blind tasting, two Chilean wines had bested the most revered cuvées of Bordeaux First Growths and Italian Super Tuscans. The winners were Viñedo Chadwick and Seña, both helmed by Eduardo Chadwick, who had organized the tasting to prove the quality of Chile’s wines to the world.
Today, ultra-premium Chilean wines are recognized as some of the best in the world, but it all started with a bold venture: Viña Seña, Chile’s first icon wine, which is set to release its extraordinary 2021 vintage.
A partnership between Chadwick, the president of the family wine business Viña Errázuriz, and California winemaking pioneer Robert Mondavi, Viña Seña was created in 1995 to harness and showcase the full potential of Chile’s vineyards. It comes from the hillsides of the Coastal Mountains in the Aconcagua Valley, where cold Pacific air funneled in by the Aconcagua River creates perfect cool-climate conditions in this secluded terroir. The choice of a cooler site for Seña was a deliberate one: The warm, dry, sunny mornings ripen grapes fully, while the cool breezes preserve acidity, creating an elegant, well-balanced wine.
The well-drained volcanic and colluvial soils of the hillside vineyard are planted with the foundational Bordeaux varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Carménère, and Malbec. While the Seña blend, first released in 1998 with its vintage 1995, slightly changes the proportion each year, it always includes Carménère to underscore its Chilean identity. The vineyard is well-suited to sustainable and organic farming, a goal of the project from the beginning, and it has been farmed under biodynamic principles since 2005—nearly two decades now—which allows Seña to better express its distinctive terroir.
2021 was an exceptional year for Seña, with ideal growing conditions. After a winter with enough rainfall to replenish local aquifers, slightly cooler, cloudier conditions led to a long, slow-growing season—perfect for crafting complex, balanced wines. The result is a blend of 50 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 27 percent Malbec, 17 percent Carménère, and 6 percent Petit Verdot, aged for 22 months in 90 percent French oak barrels and the remaining 10 percent in foudres.
The deeply colored Seña 2021 has beautiful aromatic complexity, with notes of strawberries, cassis, and rose petals, underscored by aromas of clove and spice. Red fruit and blackcurrants meld with dark chocolate on the palate, lifted by juicy acidity and finely-grained tannins. Not only is Seña 2021 drinking wonderfully right now, but it’s also poised to age very well.
Looking back at the 2004 Berlin Tasting, at a time when most leading international wine experts didn’t believe that Chile could produce an icon wine, Seña stood out in a blind tasting among established French and Italian greats. Today, it’s no surprise that Seña sits among the best in the world, and its 2021 vintage release remains remarkable indeed.
