Tasting Notes
Vinous 96
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Don Melchor is a combination of a proven style – the blend also includes 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot – and a particularly good harvest in the Puente Alto region in Maipo. Made by Enrique Tirado and aged for 15 months in French barrels, it is garnet red in the glass, with a very complex expression that unfolds in layers, beginning with black currant and sour cherry notes, followed by mint, cedar and pepper and a faint whiff of red pepper. Juicy in the mouth with fine-grained tannins and a concentration that centers the wine, channeling and stretching out the fruity backdrop, this is an unusually harmonious and delicious Bordeaux blend.
Anticipated maturity: 2022-2035
Robert Parker 95
I tasted two vintages of the top Cabernet Sauvignon, and even if the two years were quite different, the wines showed very good regularity. My preference was for the 2018 Don Melchor, from a cooler and rainier vintage that produced a very complete and balanced wine with the aid of 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot. It has power and finesse, integrated 14% alcohol and a classical profile with the ingredients to develop nicely in bottle. It’s tasty and has polished tannins. 156,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in December 2019 and early January 2020.
Anticipated maturity: 2021-2030
