Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
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Wong
Wilfred
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
This very elegant wine presents tremendous aromatic expression with a predominance of small red fruit notes. It starts smooth and is friendly on the palate and continues with perfectly balanced flavors and a long finish, where the balance and delicacy of the tannins reappear with great expression of this vintage’s lively fruit.
Pair with red meats, especially lamb and different preparations of game meats, such as roasted or braised with red wine sauce, mushrooms, rosemary, and tomatoes, etc. Also excellent with assorted terrines and pâtés, especially with truffled duck pâté. Other options include dry and aged or creamy cow’s or goat’s milk cheeses.
Blend: 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot, and 1% Merlot.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignons are always in my periscope when I taste the marquee wines each year. I have followed this wine closely for the last two decades, and it has always impressed as a consistent top wine. The 2016 vintage is solid as they come. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows richness and elegance. Its frisky aromas and flavors of red fruits, black fruits, and just an accent of oak keep it balanced in all respects. Pair it with a juicy, grilled ribeye. (Tasted: May 31, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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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.