1999 will be remembered in Chile principally for three reasons: a historically early start to the harvest in February, dramatically low volumes and the spectacular quality of the red wines. The weather was major component that made 1999 for Chile so remarkable. Spring and most of the growing season were warm and dry and the unusually hot and dry summer combined with poor fruit set early in the growing season reduced yields by 20-30% on the previous year. A cool spell before harvest was a welcome end to the season providing extra hang time to bring tannin and flavour maturity into balance. This resulted in a rounding of the wines, with rich, full-bodied wines with ripe fruit characters. The resulting wines are remarkably rich in colour, flavour concentration and intensity with the reds being some of the finest ever produced in Chile.