Montes Outer Limits Zapallar Syrah is wine is deep ruby red in colour with violet tones. The fruity nose recalls ripe black and red berries with notes of smoke, Serrano ham and coffee. The palate is vibrant and well balanced with very smooth tannins and remarkable structure and volume.

About the Producer

Montes Wines was established in 1988 after the addition of two further partners, Alfredo Vidaurre and Pedro Grand to the original visionary partners, Aurelio Montes and Douglas Murray.  Murray and Montes both had extensive experience in the world of wine and wished to make their dream come true of being the people responsible for raising the bar for the quality of wine production in Chile.  The four men all made exemplary contributions to creating and establishing 'Discover Wine Ltda' now known as Viña Montes.

Aurelio Montes has since said of their venture "The Viña Montes adventure was almost a retirement project for us. We wanted to make a small, boutique-type vineyard to entertain ourselves the day we were definitely retired and that would also allow us to show off good wines in international markets."

Vineyard and Winemaking

The Zapallar vineyards are truly coastal, being just 7 kilometres away from the Pacific Ocean, an ideal location for the growth and development of varieties such as Syrah. Montes’ 45 hectares are the only vineyards planted in this area, situated at an altitude of 120 – 150 meters above sea level. The clay-loam, granitic soil provides moderate drainage and gives rise to intense, aromatic wines, exceptionally balanced with body, flavour, and ripe tannins. Zapallar is without doubt an “Outer Limits” terroir, with an extreme climate for winegrowing which has put Montes’ winemaking abilities to the test.

The grapes were hand-picked early in the morning to preserve freshness and fruit purity. They were then hand sorted at the winery before undergoing a temperature-controlled five day cold maceration at 6-8°C on the skins to extract colour and aroma. The must was then slowly brought up to 26-28°C and inoculated with specially selected yeasts. Fermentation followed taking 10 days to complete. The wine then remained on its skins for a further five days to ensure good colour and tannin extraction. 65% of the wine was then racked off into a concrete egg, which allows continuous contact with the lees. The other 35% was racked off to second-use French oak barrels and aged for 12 months. After ageing, these two portions were blended together and lightly filtered to retain the full character of the wine.

Visit the Montes website