2017 Don Melchor
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Tasting notes
98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Cabernet Franc. Hot, dry start to the year but a great season. Aged for 15 months in French oak barrels (67% new, 33% second-use). Bottled November 2018. Launched October 2019. Enrique thinks they now really understand each parcel so that for each ‘they can put the correct tannins in the correct position’ re timing, temperature, and pumpovers. Lustrous crimson. So delightfully subtle as well as sweet. Make all those with a prejudice against Chilean wine taste this! Balsam and ink and stoniness with real vibrancy. Much fleeter of foot than many a red bordeaux. Rich but not heavy or obviously sweet. So good! (JR)
Critic scores
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Jancis Robinson MW
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Since the 2017 vintage, Don Melchor is no longer branded under the Concha y Toro umbrella. 98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Cabernet Franc. At first, there's a strong candied blackcurrant aroma on the nose. Sweet fruit on the palate, and superb depth of flavour while maintaining subtle structure – subservient tannins, fresh acid, full body and well-integrated acidity. Good technical balance here. The fruit is heavily cassis-centric, perhaps at the expense of complexity. Finishes with black-olive and iodine notes. Minimal oak influence. Powerful but velvety with lots of persistent blackcurrant (again) on the length. (RH)
Don Melchor 2017 contains 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Franc, both from Maipo Alto. This earlier harvest resulted in precise, intense doses of cassis, raspberry and blackberry jam sprinkled with spices and country herbs. A young wine, the tannic structure bodes well for the future even with the moderate freshness. (JH)
Marking its 30th anniversary, the 2017 Don Melchor was produced 30 years after the initial 1987. This is a wine that transcends vintages and shows great regularity, always combining elegance and power, with subtle mintiness and superb elegance. It's juicy, textured and velvety. This is a superb showing in 2017, a warm year and a fresh wine. Bravo! And the volume is not small—156,000 bottles were produced. It was bottled in December 2018.