Winemaker Notes
Viña Errázuriz’s flagship wine, named in honor of Don Maximiano Errázuriz, who founded the winery in 1870 in the heart of the Aconcagua Valley. Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve represents our legacy, tradition, and continuous quest to create the best and most elegant wine based on Cabernet Sauvignon and also reflects the best of terroir of the Aconcagua Valley.
Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve represents the visionary and pioneering spirit that has endured for six generations, consolidating Viña Errázuriz as the benchmark for quality and image of fine wines in Chile, recognized by critics worldwide.
Blend: 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Malbec, 7% Carmenere, 5% Petit Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The violets, roses, blueberries and blackcurrants flow from the glass. Full-bodied, tight and very focused with ultra-fine tannins that flow over the edges of the wine. Extremely long and polished. Needs time to open. Better after 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The red 2018 Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Malbec, 7% Carmenere, 5% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc that fermented in stainless steel, open vats and eggs and matured in French oak barrels, 65% of them new, for 22 months. The oak is perfectly integrated, and the wine has a fresh profile with 13.5% alcohol and a creamy texture with refined tannins and a long, dry and vibrant finish. This is a serious wine, somewhat a little shy, pure, balanced ad subtle, very complete and with integrated oak. It's juicy but also fine and probably the best of the modern vintages so far.
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.