Winemaker Notes
Elegant wine with red fruits, spices and black pepper notes. In the palate it shows great tannin structure and freshness that makes it vibrant and easy to drink. Thanks its acidity, it becomes a versatile wine that can be combined with a wide variety of flavors and foods.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Cota 500 Cabernet Sauvignon was produced with grapes from 25-year-old vines at the feet of the Andes in Maule (from the same place as the Chardonnay, on volcanic soils with stones and a little clay). It fermented destemmed with indigenous yeasts and matured in used French oak barrels for 10 to 12 months. It has 13.1% alcohol and balancing freshness. This is spicy and herbal, with freshness and red fruit, with very good acidity, impressive for a year like 2019. It's austere and medium-bodied, with very fine tannins and a long, dry finish. As with the Chardonnay, there is a noticeable improvement here. 40,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2020.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
The Maipo Valley is Chile’s most famous wine region. Set in the country’s Central Valley, it is warm and quite dry, often necessitating the use of irrigation. Alluvial soils predominate but are supplemented with loam and clay.
The climate in Maipo is best-suited for ripe, full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon (the region’s most widely planted grape), Merlot, Syrah and Carmenère, a Bordeaux variety that has found a successful home in Chile.
White wines are also produced with great prosperity, especially near the cooler coast, include Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.