“Don Melchor 2018 manages to produce that unique sensation you only get from great wines and great vintages”

After a successful launch of Don Melchor’s 2018 vintage, Enrique Tirado, CEO, and winemaker for the Winery talks to us about the Don Melchor work process and how a “perfect vintage” was achieved in 2018. You’ve been with Don Melchor for 25 years now. What has it meant for you to be part of the life and production and such an emblematic wine? I am very proud to be a part of the Don Melchor history. The experience of 23 wine harvests gives you a different approach to the wine, it feels like it’s a part of you. But not of this would have been possible without the exceptional work of our team in Puente Alto. I have nothing but appreciation for all of these years. This team adds incredible value to the terroir, and we are all aware of our responsibility to make a great wine every year. The creation of Don Melchor is quite particular and really different from the production of other wines. Could you tell us a little about the work you do? Don Melchor is a Cabernet Sauvignon blend from our vineyard that may also include a small percentage of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, like in the 2018 blend. The vineyard is divided into lots that produce grapes of differing characteristics, and we process them all separately. We taste over 150 samples to determine the final blend, and no component may constitute over 60 or 70% of the wine. Every year I take all of these samples to Lamarque, a small town in the Medoc region of France, where I meet with Eric Boissenot, and we define the final blend. The Boissenot family plays a key role in the blend’s architecture, which is different every year. Every year we create a new Don Melchor. What would you say has been Don Melchor’s main objective all these years? Don Melchor’s philosophy and ultimate objective from day 1, has always been to make a wine that truly expresses its terroir: the influence of the Andes Mountains, its rocky soils, the Cabernet Sauvignon lots, etc. That has always been our guiding purpose, year after year, in every blend. Tell us about the 2018 vintage 2018 is one of the greatest vintages in the history of Don Melchor, and the wine harvest was carried out in nearly perfect conditions. The first part of the season saw a good quantity and concentration of rainfall between May and October 2017. The following period was quite dry, allowing the soil to maintain a good water reserve and favoring bud growth. In the spring and starting in November, temperatures rose significantly, allowing for a much faster and more concentrated veraison, which led to a fairly homogeneous ripening of the grapes. During the second half of the ripening period, low nighttime temperatures in March and April helped us achieve exceptional maturity during the harvest, preserving full expression of the fruit and superbly mature tannins. The harvest was carried out primarily in April, which saw practically no rainfall, warm daytime temperatures, and fairly cold nights, providing the ideal harvest conditions and allowing us to closely monitor each plot in the vineyard and harvest the grapes at the perfect time. These exceptional weather conditions, in addition to the vineyard’s alluvial soils of volcanic origin, allowed for good drainage and low fertility, not to mention the two other essential elements: the human team and the vineyard and grape, which made it possible to produce the vintage we have today. I am convinced that to make unique wines, these are the 4 elements that must come together to perfection. What makes the Puente Alto terroir so special? The Don Melchor vineyard is located on the third alluvial terrace, which is also the oldest and most complex of the Maipo River. It is characterized by its rocky soil throughout the entire profile, followed by a large amount of minerals, clay, pebbles, silt, and round stones due to thousands of years of erosion in the area. These alluvial soils of volcanic origin allow for good drainage and low fertility, which helps restrict plant growth, adapting to a unique terrace to produce unique and complex wines, like Don Melchor. The cooling influence of the Andes is also very important, seen in the form of cool breezes and a wide temperature variation during the ripening period. This feature favors mature tannins and helps obtain a balanced acidity, displaying fresh red fruit and greater color and aroma concentration in the bunches. All of these characteristics come together perfectly to obtain the maximum quality expressed in the wine. What does it mean for you to receive a perfect score from James Suckling? As I mentioned before, our perseverance in the pursuit of the best expression and quality has allowed us to obtain in 2018 what we would call the perfect vintage. The wines are very expressive, with the perfect maturity and clear expression of the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc grapes. They are concentrated, but have soft, elegant tannins, as well as different layers of aromas and flavors that when mixed in the final blend of Don Melchor 2018, produces that unique sensation you can only find in great wines and great vintsges. It is obviously a great honor.