2009 Don Melchor

96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc. Aged for 15 months in French oak barrels (71% new, 29% second-use). Dark velvety look. Quite high toned. Racy and buttery. A bit exaggerated. Leathery finish. (JR)

Tasted at the Oriental Hotel, Bangkok, masterclass. Rich, lively and jewelly. Very well integrated already. Sweet, perfumed with notes of mint (very light) and cumin. A thoroughly satisfying wine and very popular with the roomful of Thai tasters. (JR)

The 2009 Don Melchor is a blend of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Cabernet Franc from one of the best terroirs in Chile for Cabernet Sauvignon. 2009 was a warm, powerful vintage, but the microclimate of Puente Alto helps to keep the fruit and acidity, and the wine has lots of notes of beef blood, black berries and licorice. It feels serious, concentrated and ripe, with round tannins, moderate acidity and good length, with some notes of dark chocolate and tobacco toward the finish. Drink now-2018. As you can probably guess, I didn’t taste all these Concha y Toro wines in five minutes. The process involved meeting and tasting with the three main winemakers from the huge winery – the second largest in the world, I believe. I sat down in Madrid with Enrique Tirado, who is in charge Don Melchor and Gravas del Maipoas as well as the Eolo from Trivento, their Argentinean winery. Another day, I tasted Marques de Casas Concha and the separate winery Maycas de Limari with Marcelo Papa. I visited their headquarters in Maipo where Ignacio Recabarren shared his work on the Trio, Amelia, Terrunyo and Carmin de Peumo line. In addition, they sent me more samples to taste through the trade organization Wines of Chile. Phew! The three winemakers have different personalities, which are transmitted to the wines; Marcelo Papa has a Burgundian concept of the wines, harvesting a little earlier, using less new oak, experimenting with foudres, not always barriques, and favoring cool climate regions. Concha y Toro has a number of wineries and produces a wide range of wines throughout Chile in all prices ranges. Enrique Tirado, a nice, quiet, serious guy, has been in charge of Don Melchor since 2007. He also runs Gravas de Maipo and oversees the Eolo wines from the Trivento winery in Mendoza, Argentina. Puente Alto is a small appellation within Maipo with about 400 hectares of vineyards, and the Don Melchor vineyards are 126 hectares (90% Cabernet Sauvignon). From these vineyards, they produce about 170,000 bottles of a truly iconic Chilean wine from the alluvial soils of the Andes with lots of rocks, in the third terrace from the Maipo river. This is the best terroir for Cabernet Sauvignon in Chile (Casa Real, Domus Aurea, Don Melchor, and more). Bordeaux winemakers Jacques and Eric Boissenot have been consultants for Don Melchor since the beginning. Since 1999, Don Melchor has had between 2% and 10% Cabernet Franc (in 2013 it will have 10%, the maximum). Vineyards are at 650 meters altitude. The wine is aged in French oak for around 14 months and the pH is approximately 3.6 to 3.7. I had the chance to do a vertical tasting of Don Melchor and see how the wine has evolved through time. Nowadays it’s less balsamic and less minty, the wood increasing until 2001 and then decreasing. Marcelo Papa is responsible for the Marques de Casa Concha label (with wines from different regions) as well as the Maycas de Limari (a completely separate and independent winery in the Limari Valley that is listed separately). Finally, Ignacio Recabarren, is the winemaker responsible for the rest of the lines for a company, which is the second largest wine producer in the world after Gallo. Among what he oversees are most of the Carmenere wines at the winery in Puente Alto. He was once involved in Quebrada de Macul, producers of Domus Aurea, one of the iconic Cabernet-based wines from Chile. He has an inquiring mind, always questioning what is done, trying to improve and do things differently. He experiments often, and I was able to preview some of those experiments. Importer: Excelsior Wine Company; tel. (516) 686-2500