The prestigious wine publication Wine Spectator released its annual 2024 report on Chilean wines, awarding Don Melchor 2021 an outstanding 96 points and ranking the 2021 vintage of the Chilean reds as the top #1 in the history of this specialized media.

Leading global wine industry magazine Wine Spectator published its annual report on Chilean wines: “A benchmark year for Chile,” where Aaron Romano, the magazine’s senior editor responsible for tasting wines from Chile and Argentina, tasted more than 165 wines, of which more than 100 belonged to the 2021 vintage, which he described as one that “will serve as a benchmark for what to expect from the country’s premium sector in the coming years.” 

The 35th vintage of the Puente Alto’s iconic Cabernet Sauvignon, Don Melchor 2021, received an extraordinary 96 points and was described by Aaron Romano as a “remarkable effort conveying the vintage’s subtlety with rich, muscular edges, offering a base of graphite and black currant notes that coalesce around elegant layers of dried rosemary and white pepper. The richly textured core with raspberry and plum flavors shows precision and just the right amount of acidity to stay the right course through the finish of well-integrated tannins and hints of cocoa.” 

It should be noted, that Don Melchor is the only Chilean wine to be ranked three times in Wine Spectator’s Top 10 Wines of the World and nine times in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the World. Today, with this 96-point score -the highest given by this media to a Chilean wine- continue position itself as the Top #1 Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Don Melchor 2021: celebrates its 35th vintage 

Don Melchor’s 2021 vintage, which is composed of 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Merlot, faithfully expresses the finesse and energy of its terroir in the Don Melchor vineyard located in the acclaimed Puente Alto appellation.  

“This new Don Melchor vintage certainly shows us the Puente Alto appellation’s immense potential. Don Melchor 2021, while a true reflection of exceptional climatic conditions and precision agroecological management, displays a team’s excellence in the production of world-class wine. This vintage’s immense success lies in our ability to understand the vineyard’s maturity evolution and translate it to winemaking to extract the best expression of energy and finesse in the wines,” says Enrique Tirado. 

It’s worth noting that Chile’s 2021 vintage was evaluated by Wine Spectator with 94 points, making it the highest-ranked vintage of Chilean reds since the media began tasting Chilean wines in the 1990s.