Winemaker Notes
Delicious with steaks, game, hearty stews, casseroles, and ripe, semi-creamy cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas and flavors of dark fruit, mint and toasted oak. A little too much new wood. But the palate is compelling with a pretty depth of fruit and intensity. Better in 2019.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
A bright beauty from Chile's Maipo Valley, the lively 2013 Santa Rita Medalla Real Cabernet Sauvignon offers fruit-forward flavors that are perky on the palate. Pair the wine's freshness with an oven-baked chicken. (Tasted: October 1, 2017, San Francisco, CA)
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.