Vina Don Melchor, Cabernet Sauvignon, Puente Alto 2020

Beautifully pure notions of dark plum and crushed blackberry come with smooth evocations of vanilla, cinnamon and cedar on the nose. There even is a glint of nutmeg. The palate is translucent and just as aromatic as the nose, it is especially that nutmeg and vanilla tone accentuating really pure, ripe and concentrated fruit. Tannins are silky and smooth, show their firmness only on the finish, while lovely freshness lends great balance. A wine made to be elegant rather than powerful, bravo.

Deep and serious with black olives, blackberries, blueberries, tobacco leaf, sweet red capsicum, ash, dried meat and a hint of black chocolate. This is a more direct, full-bodied Don Melchor, filled with solid blackberries and wrapped by tight, fine-grained tannins. Long and deep. 92% cabernet sauvignon, 6% cabernet franc, 1% merlot and 1% petit verdot. Better after 2024.

The 2020 Don Melchor opens with a distinctly more red-fruited and candied bouquet than the other iterations served next to it, while retaining its classic Cabernet aromas of dried tobacco, cedar and mint. The palate is juicy and sweetly concentrated before transitioning to a comparatively stiff, introverted and drying finish that, after aeration, eventually is supported by a creamy, toasted-oak-derived texture. It is a fine wine, to be sure, but to me, it falls short of the more harmonious 2021 and 2022 harvests. It's 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc and 1% each Merlot and Petit Verdot.