With a legacy of excellence that has established Viña Don Melchor as an undisputed benchmark in the Chilean wine industry and in positioning Chile as a producer of world-class wines, the winery — after 35 years focused on consolidating Don Melchor — opens a new chapter in its impeccable history. For the first time, it takes a bold step toward the future with the launch of DM/01 vintage 2022, the first wine in its limited edition ‘The Parcels’ series.

Viña Don Melchor, a subsidiary of the Concha y Toro group and the birthplace of the first iconic wine of the Chilean industry, Don Melchor, marks a new milestone today in its history. After 35 years of excellence, it launches an innovative series of exclusive wines: ‘The Parcels’. 

Since its first vintage in 1987, Don Melchor — until now the only wine in Viña Don Melchor’s portfolio — has established itself as an undisputed reference among high-end Cabernet Sauvignons, proudly carrying with excellence and elegance a great Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, whose origin and legacy date back more than 150 years.

THE PARCELS OF VIÑA DON MELCHOR

In 1997, Enrique Tirado, current General Manager and Technical Director of Viña Don Melchor, began a deep exploration of the Don Melchor Vineyard. Since then, he has passionately and obsessively dedicated himself to authentically expressing the terroir of Puente Alto — considered one of the best terroirs in the world — the place of origin of this emblematic wine, located at the foot of the Andes Mountains. “Every corner of this vineyard has its own identity, and its management cannot be uniform. That’s how we discovered that the vineyard cannot be seen as a continuous whole, but rather as a mosaic of unique expressions. This led us to divide the vineyard into different parcels, to be able to work and understand each row, each vine, each soil difference as something unique,” explains Enrique Tirado.

Initially, the vineyard had seven main parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon. However, over the years and thanks to exhaustive studies, vineyard tours, and an increasingly deep understanding of the diversity of its soils and the different manifestations of Cabernet Sauvignon, the team was able to identify and differentiate sub-parcels with particular characteristics. This greater understanding

allowed respecting and enhancing the uniqueness of each parcel, which are harvested and vinified independently to achieve the highest quality from each of these areas. This obsession with achieving the best expression of the Puente Alto vineyard led Enrique, in the 2022 season, to consider the possibility of vinifying parcel No. 1 as an independent wine. “In the 2022 vintage, I realized it was the perfect moment to highlight the unique beauty of each parcel and bring it to life through its individuality. I decided to embrace the singular expression of each vintage, highlighting the particularity of each parcel,” says Enrique Tirado.

ONE PARCEL EVERY VINTAGE

Each vintage, Enrique Tirado envisions how the different parcels of the Don Melchor vineyard express themselves according to the conditions of the season; one of them will achieve a unique expression and distinctive character, which will be reflected in a new edition of the innovative ‘The Parcels’ series. DM/01 vintage 2022, is the first wine in this exclusive series, a genuine expression of the energy, finesse, and singular character of parcel No. 01 within the Don Melchor vineyard.

PARCEL #01

Parcel #01, the oldest in the Don Melchor vineyard, was planted in 1979 with pre-phylloxera massal selection brought at the end of the 19th century and grown on own roots. It represents the essence and authentic legacy of Viña Don Melchor, considered a global viticultural relic, since from this parcel 3,000 plants were selected that originated what is today known as Don Melchor’s pre-phylloxera massal selection. “This parcel continues to be an essential part of the final blend of Don Melchor. However, in the 2022 season, its power and distinctive character allowed us to create DM/01 2022 vintage, which is not a ‘second wine,’ but the first edition of this exclusive series within Viña Don Melchor,” Tirado explains. “Wines from this parcel are characterized by intense aromas of red fruits, floral notes, and a fresh, vibrant expression. They stand out for their elegance, smoothness, and fine tannins, delivering a long and pleasant persistence on the palate,” he adds.

DM/01 VINTAGE 2022

The 2022 vintage of DM/01, which marks the first release of this new series, is composed of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Cabernet Franc. The wine was aged for 15 months in French oak barrels, 64% new and 36% second use.