Winemaker Notes
Exhibits all its power and elegance when accompanying roastmeat and game.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A concentrated, rich cabernet sauvignon with plenty of dark cherries, cassis, tapenade and damsons. Sweet spices, ripe blackberries and some dried fruit and green herbs. Concentrated and big on the palate with broad-shouldered tannins. Very dense. Chewy but well-grained. Better drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
When I sat with winemaker Eduardo Jordan to taste the latest vintages of the top wines, he took the opportunity to show me some back vintages to show the evolution of the style. I had not tasted the 2010 Manso de Velasco before and was surprised to see the minty and spicy notes (almost eucalyptus), very balsamic, that I often find in wines from Maipo. It was cropped from a cold and dry year when the grapes ripened thoroughly to 14% alcohol. They must have done an extractive vinification of late-picked grapes. The wines were probably bled to achieve more concentration and structure, and they used more new oak. The wine is a massive block moving through the years but not developing much nuance or elegance, which is something I see in general in this style and era of vinos, here and elsewhere (Spain included). It should continue like this and really not get any better or change much. It needs powerful food. This matured in 70% new French barriques for 16 months. Best after 2015.
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Wine Enthusiast
With an opaque purple tint and brawny, gaseous aromas of raw oak, bacon, black olive and blackberry, this old-vine Cabernet is blocky, tannic and bullish. Intense, toasty flavors of herbal blackberry and baked plum finish muscular, blackened, herbal and a touch bitter.
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Wine Spectator
This big, strapping red offers truffle and wet earth notes to its dried dark fruit flavors. Tarry accents show midpalate, and the finish oozes with chocolate and spice details and hints of hot stone. Drink now. 500 cases imported.
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.
Bordering the Coastal Range in the west, and stretching as far east as the foothills of the Andes, the Curicó Valley has two major mesoclimates that allow it the potential to offer a great diversity of high quality wines. In the east around Molina and north of the Claro River, the chilling winds coming off of the Andes make this part of the valley cooler. In the west, the Coastal Range protects inland wine growing areas from the Pacific Ocean, making it hotter and drier. The valley can support a large range of grape varieties within these climatic variations.
In 1979 Miguel Torres, Spain’s largest family-owned producer of premium wine based in Penedès in northeastern Spain, invested heavily in the area. By introducing many modern technologies, Torres put the Curicó Valley on the international wine map and strengthened Chile's presence in the global wine market.
Curicó is one of the southern appellations of the greater Central Valley wine growing region, which includes from north to south: Maipo, Rapel, Curicó and Maule.