THE WORLD'S OLDEST SINGLE VINEYARD CABERNET?
Chile has its handful of score-grabbers in the Cabernet Blend category: Almaviva, Seña, Don Melchior. While I enjoy the hedonistic glamour of these wines and their gumption to go toe-to-toe with Napa's finest, I don't reach for these extra full-bodied styles and their indulgent use of new french barriques very often. The press lavishes praise on Chile's ripe and lavish Cabernet blends, and they are impressive! Where you will find me, however, is over here in the corner hoarding the savory, earth and balsamic-tinged beauties you'll find in the offer today.
Three hours south of Santiago, you'll find Curíco Valley and its cooler, herb-inflected Cabernets. In 1979, Miguel Torres, one of the most important large, quality-driven operations in Spain, launched his namesake Chilean outpost in Curíco, spurring a renaissance of modern quality in Chilean wine. The winery has churned out innovation after innovation over the last few decades, including releasing the country's first sparkling wine from the País grape. Quietly and with far less press than the herculean figures mentioned above, Torres has farmed an ungrafted plot of Cabernet Sauvignon vines whose age eclipses the century mark. I can't think of an older Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard that's being bottled as a single vineyard today, and I'd be hard pressed to find something more distinctive at this price point. It's our pleasure to offer you a limited library trio of this historic chapter in Chile's wine history. With each of these three vintages clocking in at moderate alcohol levels, each of these perfumed beauties offers a more Bordelaise style, with more balsamic and mint than is typically found in the big labels from Maule or Colchagua. This does not suggest the wines are light. They are as supple and meaty as you would find in a quality vintage of Saint-Estephe or Pessac-Léognan, but its the pure cassis, wine-soaked wood and fresh pine, and spearmint aromatics that keep me enthralled. The texture is silky and in their middle development, the tannins are tame and frame the wine delicately. I highly encourage anyone who enjoys aged Cabernet to dip their toes into one of these older vintages of (one of?) the world's oldest vine Cabernet Sauvignon bottlings.
