Winemaker Notes
Blend: 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petit Verdot, 4% Merlot, 3% Carmenere
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Jean-Pascal Lacaze makes Peñalolén from the younger vines at Viña Quebrada de Macul, reserving the old-vine fruit for Domus Aurea. There’s a lot of eucalyptus influence in the aroma of the 2016, but it doesn’t diminish the wine’s gentle texture and pretty black-currant flavor. Rather, it helps capture the cool mountain woodland feel of the Andes. You could take this red in different directions, whether toward shredded braised pork or rosemary-studded roast lamb.
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Tasting Panel
Silky and crisp with racy acidity and spice; bright, toasty and herbal; long and intense.
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 Maipo Valley is Chile’s most famous wine region. Set in the country’s Central Valley, it is warm and quite dry, often necessitating the use of irrigation. Alluvial soils predominate but are supplemented with loam and clay.
The climate in Maipo is best-suited for ripe, full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon (the region’s most widely planted grape), Merlot, Syrah and Carmenère, a Bordeaux variety that has found a successful home in Chile.
White wines are also produced with great prosperity, especially near the cooler coast, include Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.