Acceptable in the 80s: Errazuriz’s cabernet

Peter Ranscombe climbs back into his vinous time machine to join a virtual ‘vertical’ tasting of wines from Chile.

DO YOU remember 1989?

It was the year that Margaret Thatcher road tested her “poll tax” in Scotland.

It was the year that David Hasselhoff single-handedly brought down the Berlin Wall.

And it was the year in which a group of vineyard workers marched out into the fields of the Aconcagua Valley in Chile to harvest that year’s cabernet sauvignon crop.

Fast-forward to this evening’s online tasting with Errazuriz and the juice from those grapes finally got the chance to make its way from the bottle into the glass.

The special wine was uncorked to mark the Chilean producer’s 150th anniversary, alongside bottles from 2006, 2013, and 2017.

The wine chosen for the virtual “vertical” tasting was Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve, named after the man who set up the company.

Maximiano wanted to make red wines, and so he picked a drier and warmer location further north from Santiago, Chile’s capital, around which most other wineries were based at the time.

That focus on the right site has driven Errazuriz’s work ever since, with the company developing the Aconcagua, a narrow valley leading from the slopes of the Andes mountains to the coast.

Opening older bottles of Don Maximiano is always special – as I discovered over lunch at The Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, back in 2017 – because of the attention to detail that goes into growing the most suitable grape variety in the most suitable type of soil.

Eight vineyards contribute grapes to the mix, which has evolved from being a straight cabernet sauvignon into a more complex Bordeaux-style blend.

Keep it if you can resist

The 2017 Don Maximiano Founder’s Reserve (£55, Noble Green Wines), which is just hitting the shelves, is full of fruity aromas, ranging from blackcurrant and blackberry through to ripe raspberry and red cherry, laced with vanilla.

Its chewy tannins make it an ideal candidate to serve alongside rump or sirloin steak at the moment, but it will definitely benefit from some further time in bottle to tame those tannins.

The fruit flavours are much darker on the palate, with tonnes of fresh acidity – a characteristic shared by all this evening’s wines.

The 2017 featured a blend of 67% cabernet sauvignon, 12% malbec, 8% carmenere, 7% petit verdot, and 6% cabernet franc.

Winemaker Francisco Baettig heaped praise on the way malbec is developing in the Aconcagua, bringing violet notes to his blends.

A cooler customer

Malbec tipped the scales at 10% in the 2013 (£54.50, Waitrose Cellar) blend, joining 79% cabernet sauvignon, 6% carmenere, and 5% petit verdot.

Made in a cooler year than 2017, the wine spent the same 22 months in French oak barrels, although only 65% of the 2013 sat in first-fill casks, compared to 72% in 2017.

Those factors all coalesced to produce a wine with more red fruit aromas on the nose, centring around redcurrant and raspberry, alongside wood smoke and roast meat.

Lots of complex fruit on the palate – featuring black cherry, blackberry, and more raspberry – along with vanilla and raspberry jam.

The extra years of ageing have helped to integrate the tannins – making this more of a roast beef accompaniment – yet the flavours on the finish were a little woody for me.

The ideal balance

The 2006 was the highlight of the tasting for me.

Time has brought together the tannins, the oak, and the fruit from the 85% cabernet sauvignon, 10% cabernet franc, and 5% petit verdot.

Despite the whole blend ageing in brand new French oak casks for 18 months, the vanilla flavours were very well integrated, sitting happily alongside the lush milk chocolate, cassis, blackberry jam, and bitter dark chocolate on the finish.

It had true elegance and held its 14.5% alcohol very lightly.

We’re into soft roast lamb territory here in terms of the food pairings – but there’s a richness to the wine’s texture that makes it delicious on its own too.

Let’s go back to 1989

Finally, the 1989, which pre-dates the wide-spread use of new French oak casks in Chile.

Instead, the cabernet sauvignon spent just six or so months in large wooden vats, representing what Baettig characterised as a “simpler” style of winemaking.

While the nose displays all the aged characteristics you’d expect from wine that’s spent 30 years in bottle – ranging from cigar smoke through cedar and on to mocha, dark chocolate, and just a touch of polish – it’s the freshness to the acidity that’s spell-binding.

I was really surprised by the level of freshness that remained in the fruit flavours too, with blackberry jam still poking out between the prune and milk chocolate flavours.

This would really sing alongside venison or a wild mushroom risotto – a fitting tribute to mark the winery’s 150th celebrations.

Read more of Peter’s wine, beer, and spirit reviews on his drinks blog, The Grape & The Grain.