Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2015
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Pair with red meats (beef and lamb) and game in different preparations, such as roasts, stews, or braises with red wine, mushrooms, rosemary, and tomatoes. Also pairs very well with assorted terrines and patés, especially duck with truffles, or with aged, dried, or creamy cow’s or goat’s milk cheeses.
Blend: 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a red with extremely creamy tannins that are fine and polished, giving length and definition to the wine. Full-bodied, yet tight and compact with plenty of currants and fresh herbs. Extremely long and flavorful. Drinking beautifully now.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant and rich-tasting red, full of concentrated red plum, cherry and currant flavors, backed suave, medium-grained tannins. The finish offers a caressing palate of lush spice, cocoa powder and cream nuances. Drink now through 2024.
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Decanter
The current release is a stunning wine. The familiar mineral and dark fruit bouquet leaps from the glass and those notes follow on the palate. Even with the Petit Verdot in the blend, the volume is lower so you hear the notes better. Similar to the 2014, but 2015 exhibits more elegance and poise.
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Wine Enthusiast
It's been a long time since Concha y Toro has put out a Don Melchor Cabernet with this much concentration and overall quality. An earthy nose with foresty berry aromas and generous but controlled oak sets up a fully stacked palate that's chewy but not fiercely tannic. Dark toasty chocolaty black-fruit flavors finish with a note of cherry cough drop and moderate acidity that says this is more or less ready now. Drink through 2025.
Editors' Choice -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
2015 was a warm and dry vintage, and the 2015 Don Melchor shows notes of ripe plums and is subtly balsamic. The palate is round and powerful, with good balance and nice integration of the oak. With time in the glass, more spicy aromas of paprika and merken emerge, but there is a notable absence of green notes. It's a ripe and round vintage of Don Melchor, faithful to the conditions of the year.
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Wine
Don Melchor, named after Concha Y Toro’s founder, is among Chile’s most-acclaimed wines and a Cabernet that belongs in every conversation about world-class interpretations of this singular varietal. Winemaker Enrique Tirado says of his vision for the wine, “Don Melchor’s style, complexity, and elegance are the extension of the perfect balance between the rocky soils in Puente Alto, the cold winds that slide down from the Andes Mountains, the generous climate of the Maipo Valley, the number of years the vines have taken to yield their best grapes, and the meticulous and caring work of the human hand.”
The signature wine from the exquisitely tended Puente Alto vineyard, Don Melchor celebrates its 30th vintage with the 2016 release. Set at the foot of the Andes Mountains on the northern banks of the Maipo River in the Upper Maipo Valley, 650 meters above sea level, the vineyard dates back to the mid-19th century, when the first pre-phylloxera French varieties were brought to Chile. Today, the vineyard consists of 127 hectares, divided into seven parcels, 90% of which are Cabernet Sauvignon, 7.1% are Cabernet Franc, 1.9% are Merlot, and 1% are Petit Verdot. Each parcel has been subdivided in order for very specific, detailed work that responds to the particular needs of each plant, row by row, to achieve the perfect balance with the weather characteristics of each year. Average vine age is over 30 years.
Every year, Winemaker Enrique Tirado travels to the small town of Lamarque, Bordeaux, France, to meet with renowned Bordeaux consultant Eric Boissenot, to taste approximately 150 lots from the vineyard and determine which lots, and in which proportions, will go into the new vintage of Don Melchor. Once the final blend has been defined, the new vintage of Don Melchor is transferred to French oak barrels from the Allier, Tronçois, and Nevers forests. Nearly two-thirds of the barrels are new, and the remaining third have had one prior use. After 14–15 months, the wine is bottled and aged for another year to develop the complexity and elegance that Don Melchor is known for.
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.