The Don Melchor 2006 is made from 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc.
Harvest: A slower than usual maturation and a tremendous difference between daytime and night time temperatures allowed us to pick the grapes later than in previous years, between April 25 and May 19. The climatic conditions coupled with intense vineyard segmentation allowed us to follow maturation levels closely and wait patiently for the tannins to truly ripen while conserving the fresh fruit expression of Cabernet Sauvignon from Puente Alto.
Fifteen months in french oak aged.
Puente Alto Vineyard is located in the highest, coldest region of the Maipo Valley. Don Melchor is harvested from 114 Cabernet Sauvignon hectares within this larger vineyard. In this section, vines are 20 years old on average and yield fruit of extraordinary quality. Don Melchor is a blend-wine, made with selected grapes harvested from carefully drawn plots.
Tasting notes: Deep cherry-red. Intense and complex, with very evenly ripe fruit and pronounced blackberry, blueberry, and blackcurrant aromas that meld with notes of fine chocolate and tobacco. Big-bodied, well-structured, and nicely concentrated, with good balance and elegance. The degree of ripeness and quality of the tannins is a firm reminder of the personality of the Cabernet Sauvignon from Puente Alto.
What the critics say...
Wine Spectator: 94 points(31/05/2009)
A dark, muscular style, with black currant, braised fig, maduro tobacco, bittersweet cocoa and loam notes that all roll together through the dense but polished finish. There's impressive power for the vintage, along with precision and balance. Drink now through 2018.
Robert Parker: 95 points(01/04/2009)
The 2006 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon is a glass-coating opaque purple with an alluring bouquet of toast, tobacco, cedar, leather, mocha, and blackcurrant. Sweet, voluptuous (but not in a fruit bomb kind of way), layered, and complex already, its superb balance will ensure at least a decade of evolution and it should drink well through 2036.
Don Melchor is the flagship wine of Concha y Toro, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon cuvee that was started in 1987, making it Chile’s senior icon. I feel confident about this because the winery kindly sent along a 1993 and a 1995 Don Melchor to provide context. The 1993 (94 points) reveals the nuance of a well-aged wine but with the balance to provide pleasure for another 10-15 years. The 1995 (95 points) is a bit rounder and more elegant, also with another 10-15 years of prime drinking ahead.
Pairing: Aged Cheese, Game Animals, Grilled Red Meats, Legume, Roasts, Stews.
Vina Concha y Toro was founded in 1883 by the hand of prominent businessman and politician Chilean Don Melchor Concha y Toro. He planted noble grapes of Bordeaux in the Maipo Valley and hired a French winemaker M. Labouchere. Currently, Concha y Toro is one of the largest wineries in... Chile and the world, and some of their wines have achieved scores very important from critics like Robert Parker.
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