Errazuriz Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 2015
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Wilfred
Wong -
James
Suckling - Decanter
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Robert
Parker - Vinous
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Don Maximiano 2015 is dense, muscular, and refined. Dark and rich in color with aromas of licorice, fresh red berries like raspberries, cherries, and strawberry, accompanied by soft tones of chocolate and nutmeg. While still distinctively focused, the wine is all about fruit intensity, with notes of cedar and dried cherry, currant, and cardamom. With firm tannins in balance with black fruit flavors and bright acidity, the 2015 Don Maximiano is powerful, dense, yet beautifully balanced and precise.
Blend: 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Carmenere, 8% Malbec, 7% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Amongst world-class Cabernet Sauvignons and Bordeaux blends, there is no question that the Chileans have arrived in a big-time way. The 2015 Errázuriz Don Maximiano is an outstanding wine by anyone's standard. TASTING NOTES: This is a complete wine. Its aromas and flavors of generous black fruit and beautifully refined oak nuances turn it into an experience by itself, but pairing it with an Entrecôte or a thick juicy ribeye would make the moment even more spectacular. (Tasted: October 1, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
Very refined and pretty with tight polished tannins and a linear and fruity mouthfeel. Medium body, precise and focused. It shows the essence of cab character. Feminine style.
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Decanter
If the 1984 was a pre-Parker wine, this is its 'post-Parker' incarnation. Winemaker Francisco Baettig has fashioned a really super-fresh, drinkable and elegant 2015 Don Max from what was a cooler vintage. It has beautifully delineated cassis and blackberry coulis fruit with a touch of cream on the mid-palate, but this is all about the gorgeously focussed fruit in combination with fine-grained tannins and lively, balanced acidity. There's lots of lift, sophistication and pleasure on offer here now, and for many years to come.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve is a Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend with 15% Carménère, 8% Malbec, 7% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc from Panquehue. It fermented in small stainless steel vats and matured in French oak barrels (68% new) for 22 months, including malolactic. This has to be the most elegant version of this cuvée that I tasted, with even a lighter structure than the cooler 2014, and there's also a little more acidity. The texture is seamless, and the balance between fruit, tannins and acidity is superb. This is a superb Bordeaux blend.
Rating: 93+ -
Vinous
The 2015 Blend Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve is a mixture of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Carménère, 8% Malbec, 7% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc that spent 22 months in 68% new barrels. Garnet red with purple flecks. The nose begins with balsam and bay leaf against a dark fruit backdrop, plus hints of cedar and black currant. In the mouth, it feels clean and dry, with grippy tannins well supported by a juicy flow that stretches out the finish.
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Errázuriz is recognized as perhaps the single top-quality producer of Chilean wines, within recent years. Eduardo Chadwick, President, was named Decanter Man of the Year 2018, and the winery was awarded Best Chilean Winery 2017 by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. As an estate winery, Errázuriz strives to produce the finest wines by controlling every stage of the winemaking process, from grape growing in the Aconcagua, Casablanca and Curico valleys, to winemaking with the most natural techniques. An emphasis is placed on the delicate handling of the wines, with the aim of producing wines of elegance and complexity. It is this dynamism and passion for wine that has made Errázuriz such an internationally respected producer of quality wines.
Don Maximiano Errazuriz founded Viña Errazuriz in 1870 in the Aconcagua Valley, north of Santiago. This valley has cool, rainy winters, hot, dry summers and moist Pacific Ocean breezes--ideal for growing grapes. Don Maximiano sent for the finest clones from France and with tenacity and perseverance transformed this barren land into a world-class vineyard. Today, the tradition of quality lives on with Don Maximiano's descendant, Eduardo Chadwick--the fifth generation of his family to be involved in the wine business. Eduardo has overseen the modernization of the winemaking technology at this historic estate while maintaining a distinct identity for its wines, dedicated to producing estate grown wines of superior quality.
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 Aconcagua River runs east from the charming costal town of Valparaiso and bisects the land creating the valley after which it was named. While alluvial soils predominate the Aconcagua Valey along its river throughout, its east-west flow creates drastically different conditions on each of its ends. Its western, seaside vineyards, with clay and stony soils upon gently rolling hills, produce cool-climate varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Its inner region is one of Chile’s hottest and produces some of its best red wines. Panquehue in the inner Aconcagua is the site of Chile’s first Syrah vines, planted in 1993.