Winemaker Notes
This wine pairs well with red meat, casseroled pulses, ratatouille, strongly flavored cheese and seitan.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A smoky, tarry nose of roasted red peppers, bacon, black olives and dark tobacco. Very firm, abundant tannins in a dissolved, powdery form that coat the palate, with a big, voluptuous center palate and a lengthy finish. Concentrated and long. What a unique cabernet sauvignon. Drink now or hold.
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Wine Spectator
This concentrated and slightly muscular version offers hoisin, loam and spiced chocolate notes up front, followed by plum and cassis flavors. Yet there's a measure of elegance underneath, with floral berry and baking spice details emerging amid a push of acidity that lingers around structured tannins. Drink now through 2032.
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Wine Enthusiast
Coming from vineyards in the Maipo Alto, this is a flavorful Cabernet that offers aromas of baking spices and red fruit. It has fine tannins and the energy to carry strawberry jam and toasted oak flavors through the long-lasting finish.
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.