Winemaker Notes
This very elegant wine presents tremendous aromatic expression with a predominance of small red fruit notes. It starts smooth and is friendly on the palate and continues with perfectly balanced flavors and a long finish, where the balance and delicacy of the tannins reappear with great expression of this vintage’s lively fruit.
Pair with red meats, especially lamb and different preparations of game meats, such as roasted or braised with red wine sauce, mushrooms, rosemary, and tomatoes, etc. Also excellent with assorted terrines and pâtés, especially with truffled duck pâté. Other options include dry and aged or creamy cow’s or goat’s milk cheeses.
Blend: 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot, and 1% Merlot.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignons are always in my periscope when I taste the marquee wines each year. I have followed this wine closely for the last two decades, and it has always impressed as a consistent top wine. The 2016 vintage is solid as they come. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows richness and elegance. Its frisky aromas and flavors of red fruits, black fruits, and just an accent of oak keep it balanced in all respects. Pair it with a juicy, grilled ribeye. (Tasted: May 31, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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.