Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2010
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Deep cherry red in the glass. The aroma of this wine is elegant and complex, brimming with notes of black currants and spice complemented by chocolate and tobacco. Soft tannins give way to evolving freshness with an elegant, persistent finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Pretty aromas of blueberries with hints of sandalwood and cedar. Full body, with very integrated tannins and a wonderfully polished texture. The finish is extremely long and intense. Serious density and class to this. A blend of 97% cabernet sauvignon and 3% cabernet frac.
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Wine Spectator
In 2010, Chile’s Puente Alto appellation saw a slightly cooler-than-usual growing season, and winemaker Enrique Tirado used the weather to his advantage, allowing the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, grown on alluvial soils, to hang on the vines longer than usual. The result is this particularly elegant version of the flagship Don Melchor. Blended with 3 percent Cabernet Franc, the wine aged in French oak barrels for 15 months. Concha y Toro, owned by the Guilisasti family, is Chile’s largest wine company.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I had the chance to revisit some older vintages of the top Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine from Puente Alto, including the 2010 Don Melchor from a cooler and drier than average year that resulted in a later harvest. It contains 3% Cabernet Franc and aged in 76% new French barriques for 15 months. 110,000 bottles were produced in 2010. This has to be one of the finest vintages of Don Melchor. It has absorbed the light lactic touch from its youth and is developing at what seems to be the pace of this bottling, extremely slowly. There is great balance and a combination of power and elegance that is unusual. This has to be one of the best zones in Chile for Cabernet Sauvignon, and this is a great example of it. It was bottled in November 2011.
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Wine & Spirits
This classic Alto Maipo cabernet grows at Tocornal, on vines planted in the 1970s. It builds from scents of herbs and menthol toward a strong presence of red fruit and spice. The texture is soft and gentle while acidity marks the contours of the mouth with freshness.
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Don Melchor, named after Concha Y Toro’s founder, is among Chile’s most-acclaimed wines and a Cabernet that belongs in every conversation about world-class interpretations of this singular varietal. Winemaker Enrique Tirado says of his vision for the wine, “Don Melchor’s style, complexity, and elegance are the extension of the perfect balance between the rocky soils in Puente Alto, the cold winds that slide down from the Andes Mountains, the generous climate of the Maipo Valley, the number of years the vines have taken to yield their best grapes, and the meticulous and caring work of the human hand.”
The signature wine from the exquisitely tended Puente Alto vineyard, Don Melchor celebrates its 30th vintage with the 2016 release. Set at the foot of the Andes Mountains on the northern banks of the Maipo River in the Upper Maipo Valley, 650 meters above sea level, the vineyard dates back to the mid-19th century, when the first pre-phylloxera French varieties were brought to Chile. Today, the vineyard consists of 127 hectares, divided into seven parcels, 90% of which are Cabernet Sauvignon, 7.1% are Cabernet Franc, 1.9% are Merlot, and 1% are Petit Verdot. Each parcel has been subdivided in order for very specific, detailed work that responds to the particular needs of each plant, row by row, to achieve the perfect balance with the weather characteristics of each year. Average vine age is over 30 years.
Every year, Winemaker Enrique Tirado travels to the small town of Lamarque, Bordeaux, France, to meet with renowned Bordeaux consultant Eric Boissenot, to taste approximately 150 lots from the vineyard and determine which lots, and in which proportions, will go into the new vintage of Don Melchor. Once the final blend has been defined, the new vintage of Don Melchor is transferred to French oak barrels from the Allier, Tronçois, and Nevers forests. Nearly two-thirds of the barrels are new, and the remaining third have had one prior use. After 14–15 months, the wine is bottled and aged for another year to develop the complexity and elegance that Don Melchor is known for.
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.