Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 (Chile)

Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 (Chile)Deep, ruby red in colour. The nose is complex, with ripe red and black fruit, including strawberry, prune, and blueberry. There are also well balanced notes of tobacco, leather, and toast, thanks to the 12 months of barrel ageing. These are followed by dairy notes of dulce de leche and toffee. The tannins are silky on the palate, with great body and elegance. With medium balance and a long finish, the wines palate repeats the aromas perceived on the

Deep, ruby-red in colour. The nose is complex, with ripe red and black fruit, including strawberry, prune, and blueberry. There are also well-balanced notes of tobacco, leather, and toast, thanks to the 12 months of barrel ageing. These are followed by dairy notes of dulce de leche and toffee. The tannins are silky on the palate, with great body and elegance. With medium balance and a long finish, the wine’s palate repeats the aromas perceived on the nose.

A red blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot. The Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards that produce our Montes Alpha are located in the Colchagua Valley, at our Apalta and Marchigüe estates. The origin of the soils in these two areas is granite at differing stages of decomposition. Both show considerable variation in clay content, depth, and quantity of organic matter.

The 2019–2020 season saw another very dry winter, just as we have had for several years now. The low availability of water explains the very significant drop in yields -approximately 15–20%- impacting the final quality of the wines. Spring was free of significant frost in our Colchagua vineyards, giving us excellent growing conditions. Summer had high temperatures that accelerated the ripening process, resulting in a harvest date for both our white and red grapes that was moved forward by almost a month, in some cases. The low fruit charge in our vineyards meant that bunches at harvest time had small grapes, positively affecting the concentration of aromas, flavours, and colour of the red grapes, giving us very high quality for processing. Both our Apalta and Marchigüe vineyards had timely and methodical harvests, decided as always by tasting the berries, which allowed us to project positively how the resulting wines will be.

The grapes were harvested by hand and transported to the cellar in 300-kg containers. A manual selection of the bunches was carried out prior to destemming. Grapes of Montes Alpha quality were macerated in fermentation tanks for 5 days, after which selected yeasts were added to begin a perfectly controlled fermentation. It lasted 7–10 days, until all the sugars were transformed into alcohol. Next, the wine was racked into stainless steel and concrete tanks, maintaining the optimal temperature for malolactic fermentation (which can occur quickly or take up to 20 days). Once this second fermentation finished, the wine was racked into French oak barrels and aged for 12 months. A proportion of the wine remained in concrete tanks, for blending into the final wine before bottling.

Food Pairing: Highly recommended with red meats, Mongolian beef, spaghetti with Bolognese sauce, and lambchops with Cabernet and mushroom sauce.