2005 Don Maximiano Reserve

The 2005 Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve has ripe blackberry, iodine and mint on the nose that remains primal and one-dimensional. The palate is medium-bodied with a saline, tannic entry. I find this brutish and surly, and the finish is austere and saturnine. I think the oak (18 months in new French) has dried this out because it is overwhelmed by wood tannins. Drink now-2014. It was a pleasure to spend two or three hours in the company of Eduardo Chadwick at his estate and undertake verticals of his wines. Few have done more to promote Chilean wine than him, most notably with his blind comparisons with First Growth to demonstrate that Sena stands shoulder to shoulder with Old World icons. As you might guess, we had a long debate about that! But also, we engaged in a long discussion about viticulture and the philosophy behind his portfolio. Readers may remark on my relatively mean scores. I thought long and hard about this. But I firmly feel that recent vintages from Errazuriz completely outshine the older ones and speaking at length with winemaker Francisco Baettig, there is a sense of a winery changing tack and in my opinion, what this estate will produce in the next twenty years will completely surpass the previous twenty years. Importer: Vintus Wines, Pleasantville, NY; www.vintuswines.com