Chilean Cab at its Best

With its wine-friendly Mediterranean climate – mild wet winters, hot dry summers – Chile’s Maipo Valley has another thing going for it: “Stony, poor soil with a low level of nutrients,” said winemaker Enrique Tirado, “in other words, perfect.” 

 

The Don Melchor wines come from the Puente Alto Vineyard – at 650m above sea level, the elevation makes it one of the coolest parts of the hot valley. Daytime summer temperatures in the upper 20s drop to 10 or even lower at night, which gives the right kind of stress to the vines.

 

Backed by the financial muscle of Concha y Toro, Chile’s largest wine producer (21 million cases per year), the high-end Don Melchor marque benefits from state of the art winemaking facilities and enough staff to hand-sort the berries at harvest. The obsessive dedication of Tirado is the final touch: he is constantly experimenting with blends and analyzing the results. Tirado has worked out exactly which blocks in the 114 hectare property produce the best grapes, as well as the maximum amount of cabernet franc to put in the blend: “it rounds out the tannins, but if the percentage is above 6%, it thins the wine too much,” said Tirado.

 

Tirado talked about the weather in each of the years – more rain in this one, less rain in that one, a cooler spring here, a hotter summer there – but I felt that there really wasn’t the kind of vintage variation we’d see in Niagara or France. When I asked him about this, Tirado agreed that although there was a narrow band of variation in the climate, pretty much every year is a good year in the Maipo. Therefore, I hold to my view that unless you have a hypersensitive palate, the vintage year in the certain areas of Chile, California and Australia blessed with entirely predictably perfect weather is not that important. What is important in the case of a fine cab from those areas is who makes it, how rigorously does he or she cull the grapes to get the best, and how old is it? The excellent Don Melchor tasting was a good opportunity to see the evolution of a wine over the years, and this is a wine that's made to age.

 

Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 1997

Deep ruby colour, rich but lean nose of dark red fruit, including cassis with secondary notes of iodine. Very dry on the palate and not very fruity but super smooth. Great acidity and powdery tannins. Nice lingering finish of the same muted red fruit. 90 points.

 

Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2000

Ripe dark red fruit on the nose of this one, which seemed to me the most Bordeaux in style, with very evident secondary notes of iodine and pencil lead. Smooth on the palate, the softer tannins of an older wine that, like a good Bordeaux, retains lots of acidity. Again, not over fruity on the palate and a terrific long finish. Returning to taste this after 15 minutes or so, I noted that it “evolves beautifully in the glass” and was even silkier and smoother. 92 points.

 

Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

Super rich nose of ripe dark red fruit and a pleasant undertone of milk chocolate. Great fresh acidity on this younger model and lots of juicy red fruit on the palate. Cedar notes from the oak more evident too and the tannins are grippy. Great finish of cherry and cassis fruit mixing nicely with the secondary notes. This is great now, but will continue to improve. 93 points

 

Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

Boldest nose yet on the youngest: lots of rich red fruit, chocolate, cassis and cherry. This one feels very New World. Big mouthful of nicely balanced fruit and a bit of vanilla and other oaky notes. Tannins and acidity obvious and there’s a great fruity finish. This one definitely needs to age to reach its full potential. Consensus among the writers was that this was the best and the winemaker feels that the 05 will turn out to be a great vintage. 92 points.

 

Want to get some? The 2004 will be released at Vintages on March 29 at $59.95 and the 2005 will follow later this year, though the price has not yet been determined. Other vintages can be ordered directly through the agent, Select Wines.