Winemaker Notes
Highly recommended with red meats, lamb chops with rosemary, pork ribs, and cannelloni.
Blend: 92% Carmenère, 8% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has a perfect nose of blackberry, tar, black pepper, thyme, cloves and rose petal. Full body and firm and very silky and polished tannins. The finish goes on for minutes. Best ever. Great class. 92% carmenere and 8% petit verdot. Drink in 2019 but so gorgeous now.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
When I first tasted the Montes Purple Angel many years ago, I was stunned by the wines incredible power and elegance. The 2014 vintage is pretty exceptional and one of the winery's best to date. The wine explodes with bold black fruit that stays just this side of going over-the-top. Pair it with smoked pork ribs. (Tasted: October 1, 2017, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
Svelte and plush, with concentrated dark plum and cherry pie flavors that are loaded with Asian spice notes. Offers a fleshy core, which is flanked by plenty of savory accents. Dark chocolate details show on the finish. Carmenère and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
If you feel like a big, ripe and well-oaked red, the 2014 Purple Angel is for you. It's super-premium Carmenere with some 8% Petit Verdot. Very dark, opaque, brooding and dense, it boasts plenty of balsamic and smoky aromas and a powerful palate with fine-grained, abundant tannins. There are tons of black fruits and spices from the 18 months in spent in brand new French oak barrels.
Dark, full-bodied and herbaceous with a spicy kick, Carménère found great success with its move to Chile in the mid-19th century. However, the variety went a bit undercover until 1994 when many plantings previously thought to be Merlot, were profiled as Carménère. Somm Secret— Carménère is both a progeny and a great-grandchild of the similarly flavored Cabernet Franc.
Well-regarded for intense and exceptionally high quality red wines, the Colchagua Valley is situated in the southern part of Chile’s Rapel Valley, with many of the best vineyards lying in the foothills of the Coastal Range.
Heavy French investment and cutting-edge technology in both the vineyard and the winery has been a boon to the local viticultural industry, which already laid claim to ancient vines and a textbook Mediterranean climate.
The warm, dry growing season in the Colchagua Valley favors robust reds made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Malbec and Syrah—in fact, some of Chile’s very best are made here. A small amount of good white wine is produced from Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.