Winemaker Notes
The nose opens on an array of refined ripe black fruit aromas, joined on airing by light toasted hazelnut notes. The palate has ripe black fruit notes found on the nose return on the rich and ample attack, while attractive spice and toast flavors bring remarkable complexity and intensity to the midpalate, underpinned by powerful tannins typical of Cabernet Sauvignon. The black fruit flavors return on the long and fresh finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Impressively fresh and upbeat fruit that runs from dark cherries to berries and ripe dark plums. The palate has a very fresh and attractive core of plush fruit flavor with a long, seamless run of silky, fresh tannins.
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Decanter
Good value Chilean Cabernet, grown in the Maipo Valley and packed with blackcurrant fruit. Appealing black berry aromas: fresh and fragrant. The ripe and spicy black fruit palate is framed by well judged oak (eight months in second-use French barrels) providing supple tannins. Lovely freshness throughout with a long finish of black fruit dusted with spice and a hint of chamois leather.
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.