DON MELCHOR PUENTE ALTO CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2018

This bottle was $100 at Dorignac’s on December 12, 2024. And it was well worth it. I really loved this wine. As I was drinking it, I jotted the following: cherry and floral notes, peppermint, a subtle horse stable smell (!), cigars, long finish… Now, you might wonder why I would like a wine that smells like a horse stable. Ummm, that’s hard to explain. This wine was delicious and it was just screaming BIG OLE STEAK! So, maybe it was the fact I had grilled a perfectly medium rare porterhouse steak and I had a lovely casserole of au gratin potatoes in rosemary infused cream. It was just the absolute perfect Friday night dinner. I will definitely pick up a few more bottles of this wine and invite someone over to share this. This Chilean wine ROCKS.

What did the experts say? James Suckling gave this wine 100 points and said: This is amazing. The vibrancy and energy in this wine is stunning. The complexity of aromas are breathtaking with flowers, blackcurrants, raspberries and peaches. Full-bodied, yet ever so refined and polished with impeccable texture and beauty. The length is marvelous. This is a testimony to balance, harmony and transparency in a great red. Drink after 2023.

Wine and Spirits gave the wine 96 points and said: Long produced from its own 314-acre vineyard, a prime site on the third alluvial terrace above the north bank of the Maipo River, Don Melchor is now established in its own estate winery. Enrique Tirado, who started making Don Melchor in 1997, considers the 2018 season one of the most vine-friendly he has worked, with plenty of rain in winter, optimal weather during flowering, no heat spikes in summer and cool nights through harvest. The fruit of the vines shows the freshness of the season, as well as the ripeness, allowing Tirado and consultant Eric Boissenot to include both early ripening merlot and late-ripening petit verdot in this 2018 (in most years, they limit the blend to cabernets sauvignon and franc). The purity of that fruit is completely Andean—neither green nor dimpled, but precisely tuned in both the flavor and texture of its tannins. The wine has a quiet, gracious power, reflecting its Chilean character (there’s nothing either bold or austere about it; this is a wine of a place, without cabernet preconceptions). Its black currant and tart red cherry flavors have the crunch of walking through Andean snow, even as the sunniness of the fruit is cool, not at all cold, leaving a gracious impression. Great Andean cabernet has the capacity to age and develop for decades. If you’ve never invested in Chilean wine, this is the place to start.

Regarding the horse stable smell, I couldn’t find any reviews that mentioned that particular aspect of this wine. Was I nuts? I did find this information on a website called 88bamboo.com which discussed the unique characteristics of not only Don Melchor cab but also the terroir of the Puente Alto sub-region on the northern bank of the Maipo River.