Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

Deep cherry red in color, this wine captivates with its balanced, depth, and complexity. The aromas of red fruits delicately intermingle with mineral notes that recall cold ashes and pencil lead. Fine, delicate textures appear on the palate and show this to be an ample, deep wine with a smooth, fine attack followed by an intense, mouth-filling evolution. Concentrated, expressive, and generous in flavors and aromas with a long finish dominated by the balance and elegance of the various layers of flavors.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

This very elegant wine presents tremendous aromatic expression with a predominance of small red fruit notes. It starts smooth and is friendly on the palate and continues with perfectly balanced flavours and a long finish, where the balance and delicacy of the tannins reappear with great expression of this vintage’s lively fruit.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

Deep cherry red in color. Don Melchor 2017 is a wine with extraordinary elegance. Full of aromas and flavors and a marked presence of red berries. On the palate, ther are strong notes of Cabernet Sauvignon from Puente Alto, with fine and delicate tannins, while also providing a good density and long-lasting finish.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

Excellent expression of Cabernet Sauvignon’s characteristic red fruit aromas followed by mineral notes of ash and pencil lead. Great complexity on the palate with outstanding concentration and freshness accompanied by velvety tannins.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

This season was the coldest in the history of Don Melchor, and this, along with harvesting 10 days later than usual, allowed the grapes to ripen slowly and reach the end of the season with exceptionally well-ripened tannins along with very good fruit expression, freshness, and personality.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

The 2011–2012 growing season was a warm one, and the temperatures were higher than usual throughout the grapes’ growing and ripening season. The cooling influence of the Andes Mountains and an early harvest, however, resulted in bunches with good ripening and tremendous balance between freshness and tannin quality.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

The entire growing season, especially the period between flowering and ripening, was influenced by cold temperatures that ultimately led to harvesting later than usual.

At the time of harvest, the grapes were full of aromas and flavors with tremendous fresh fruit expression and a high concentration of very fine tannins, resulting a very complex and elegant wine. The nose offers notes of graphite, black fruit, and chocolate. The palate begins with soft, smooth tannins, a silky texture, and good balance, leading to layers of aromas and flavors that lend the wine tremendous concentration, depth, and complexity on the finish.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

The 2010 season was marked by temperatures that were lower than normal and cold nights during the ripening period. This allowed us to harvest—a little later than usual—fresh fruit with tremendous Cabernet Sauvignon expression and produce a wine that maintains the Don Melchor personality with great freshness, balance, and elegance in the tannins.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

Chile’s 2009 season was quite warm in general, and Puente Alto was no exception, although its proximity to the Andes Mountains and its very cool nights, even in this vintage, produce very well-balanced fruit that enables the wine to maintain the personality of Don Melchor with its tremendous freshness, balance, and ripe tannins.

This season was marked by a cold winter, a cold start to spring followed by a hot summer. Minimum temperatures were always low, producing good temperature diferences between night and day.

This was a relatively dry season in terms of rainfall, the spring and summer months were very dry with just a few rainfalls in March and April.

A warmer than usual winter led to a good spring and encouraged good overall development in the vineyard. Although the early summer months were quite warm, the temperature dropped as the season progressed and promoted good maturation in the bunches. Because rainfall is concentrated in the winter months, we were able to wait patiently for the grapes to fully ripen.

Highly favorable climatic conditions throughout the entire season and decreased yields in the vineyard resulted in making 2007 a vintage of excellent quality wines.

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.

Highly favorable weather allowed us to cut grapes unhurried from April 19 through May 17 in what proved an exceptional year. Conditions meant we could wait for the grapes to ripen fully and we obtained excellent quality fruit.

Upon harvesting the grapes offered highly expressive ripe fruit and the marked, classic notes of a Puente Alto Cabernet sauvignon. The fruit displayed good concentration, firm skins and supple, ripe tannins that show through well in the final wine.

The Puente Alto area received lower total rainfall than usual in the year May 2003 – April 2004. Above average temperatures were recorded throughout the growing season up until half-way through the ripening period. Nighttime temperatures were close to the historic average with fresh nights contributing to good fruit ripeness.

In April, temperatures dropped below the historic average, which helped us in monitoring the final stages of maturity and so preserve the
true expression and freshness of the fruit.

Grape picking occurred a week later than normal.

The 2002-2003 season started with a rainfall concentration in winter, afterwards a dry season allowed us to get small grain clusters that were going to produce very concentrated and expressive wines.

During the last stage of ripening and during the harvest we enjoyed a very good weather, and, although there were high temperatures during the day, they fortunately descended enough at night to help a good evolution of the ripening and to preserve the fruit expression within the vineyard.

This season’s climate conditions at the Don Melchor vineyards closely resembled those of a normal year. With most of the rainfall limiting itself to wintertime and good temperatures during ripening season, we were able to obtain clusters with a thoroughly well achieved level of ripeness.

A few scattered rains during ripening season were counterbalanced by the vineyard’s stony soils.

This season, wintertime monopolized most of the rainfall, which showered through mainly June and July. Wintertime began with low temperatures but got increasingly warmer until it turned into a fairly temperate spring, providing good conditions for the vines to begin their vegetative cycle. Summer brought more good weather and very sparse precipitations, allowing now for clusters to fully ripe.

Climatic conditions were good overall this year, which started with a cold, wet winter. While spring and summer temperatures were little below seasonal averages at the vineyard, conditions were warm enough to promote balanced growth in the vineyard. This, in addition to precipitation in mid-April, compelled us to hold off the harvest and wait for the Cabernet Sauvignon fruit to ripen fully.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

The weather conditions were the opposite of those of the previous season. A severe drought and good temperatures resulted in harvesting approximately two weeks earlier than anticipated. Bunches with ripe and elegant tannins predict great wines. The harvest took placed in the first two weeks of April, and the grapes reached the winery in very healthy condition—ripe and concentrated in aromas and flavors.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

El Niño weather conditions predominated in 1998, causing heavy rains, slightly lower temperatures, and considerably less insolation.
Most rain fell during the vegetative part of the plant growth cycle. this made for a real challenge and led to harder work in the vineyard
-tending to the foliage, de-shooting, and removing leaves to ensure plant balance. Harvest had to wait through late April, two weeks later
than normal. As tannin development was the slowest ever, only by sampling berries did we know exactly when to harvest.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

Balanced weather imparted great roundness to tannins in the vineyard while careful lot tending ensured optimum ripeness. Grapes were manually picked through the month of April and were vinithed at the Puente Alto facility. During fermentation and maceration we sought to bring out the full range of aromas and concentrations and ensure a balanced, harmonious, complex result. Attentive fermentation and proper contact with wood made this possible. Highly expressive of the strength of the Puente Alto vineyard, this wine’s strength and length provide exceptional aging potential.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

A normal weather season through the entire growth process. Yet, more than 50 mm of rain fell in early April, forcing us to delay the harvest until the effects of rain had passed. While a copious late-season snowfall on the nearby Andes mountains caused a significant temperature drop, grapes were delivered to our fermentation facility in perfect condition.

Enrique Tirado TASTING NOTES

Good weather conditions from first growth through harvest resulted in superior grape ripeness. Good sunlight allowed for proper photosynthesis and high polyphenol concentration. Precipitation from January through April was 30 mm, making for a good harvest. We waited for the grapes to reach peak maturity and harvested each sector at the right time.

ENRIQUE TIRADO TASTING NOTES

Normal temperatures and rainfall contributed to well-balanced year climatically. Conditions allowed us to pick excellent grapes in April. Alcoholic fermentation was carefully controlled at temperatures between 29°C and 31ºC. A total average in-tank time of 21 days extracted a great deal of the wine’s tannins.
Twelve months in barrel helped the wine mature these tannins, which needed the time to become rounder and more refined.

ENRIQUE TIRADO TASTING NOTES

A balanced year in terms of weather, and temperatures were good from first growth through harvest. Moderate precipitation enabled the grapes to develop and ripen well. Although 508 millimeters of rainfall were registered from May through April, 92 millimeters fell immediately after the harvest in late April. Nature once again provided us a wine growing season.

ENRIQUE TIRADO TASTING NOTES

Memories are still fresh with images of the Andean foothills around Santiago covered in springtime snow in 1991. Frost in the vineyards afected the budding bunches reducing grape production and, consequently, harvest volume.
Rains and below average temperatures as the grapes ripened made for a complex harvest.

ENRIQUE TIRADO TASTING NOTES

The climate was ideal this season from budbreak through harvest, except for the lower solar radiation, which resulted in a lower alcohol level than in the past three vintages.
The grapes were picked with the proper degree of ripeness in early April. Alcoholic fermentation was normal and followed by an additional 15 days of maceration to obtain more aromatic expression in the wine

ENRIQUE TIRADO TASTING NOTES

Although temperatures were warm at the onset of ripening in January, the rest of the ripening period was colder than usual. Precipitation, on the other hand, was very close to the historic average with rainfall concentrated during the winter months, which provided a good reserve of groundwater.

ENRIQUE TIRADO TASTING NOTES

A year of good weather conditions, starting with a colder than normal winter and spring. The season had more extreme minimum and maximum temperatures, which explains the wine’s intense fruit expression and complexity.

ENRIQUE TIRADO TASTING NOTES

1988 is the second vintage of Don Melchor. is season was marked by the El Niño phenomenon, with colder conditions and abundant precipitation. 779 millimeters of rain fell this year—twice the amount of a normal year. Temperatures were lower than the historic average and made it necessary to wait until mid-April for the fruit to reach proper ripeness.

ENRIQUE TIRADO TASTING NOTES

The first vintage of Don Melchor in 1987 was produced in a climatically normal year. Good January and February temperatures and the near absence of rainfall as the fruit ripened resulted in excellent grape maturity.
Harvested in late March and early April, the vintage was vinified at the Puente Alto cellar just like all of the other Don Melchors. the wine was then put into French oak barrels for eight months.