Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Beautiful aromas of blueberries and currants with a hint of stone and concrete. Medium to full body, firm and lightly chew tannins with a dusty texture. Hints of chocolate and hazelnut nut. A cab that gives you pleasure and interest. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Max Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon was sourced from their estate vineyards in the interior of the Aconcagua Valley, cropped from an early, warm and dry year. The wine matured in French oak barrels, 25% of them new, for 12 months before bottling. The wine is impeccable, with a nice Cabernet structure, and in fact it feels like a much more expensive wine. It has a slightly commercial profile, but it's less sweet and has a lot less oak than before. The price is a steal. The palate is vivacious and has a very good finish and a notable absence of menthol or eucalyptus, very clean and with focused fruit.
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.