Renowned wine trade publication Wine Spectator published its 2024 report on Chilean wines. It gave extraordinary scores to the company’s premium wine portfolio and ranked our 2021 vintage as the best Chilean red wine in its history.
Leading global wine industry magazine Wine Spectator published its annual report on Chilean wines: “A benchmark year in Chile,” where Aaron Romano, senior editor in charge of tasting wines from Chile and Argentina, tasted more than 165 wines, of which more than 100 corresponded to the 2021 vintage, which he described as one which “will serve as a reference for the country’s premium sector in the coming years.”
This time, the iconic Cabernet Sauvignon’s 35th vintage of the Puente Alto D.O., Don Melchor 2021, received an extraordinary 96 points. Romano described it as ” An outstanding effort conveying the vintage’s subtlety with rich, muscular edges, offering a base of graphite and black currant notes that come together 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 keep the wine on track through the finish of well-integrated tannins and hints of cocoa.
Don Melchor is the only Chilean wine to be ranked three times in the Top 10 wines worldwide and nine times in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 global wine list.
As for Concha y Toro’s icon Carmenere, Carmín de Peumo 2021, it received an outstanding 93 points and Aaron Romano described it as: “An intriguing and complex version evoking a Pinot Noir for its initial notes of cherry, underbrush, and red tea, yet adds slightly more robust secondary layers of creme de cassis and roasted peppercorns, which intermingle with strawberry jam and sandalwood on the palate. It lengthens nicely around a boost of acidity and tannins with herbal hints.”
Notably, the 2021 vintage was evaluated by Wine Spectator with 94 points, making it Chile’s highest-ranked vintage of reds since the magazine started tasting Chilean wines in the 1990s.
These excellent scores add to our Limarí appellation’s great exponents: Amelia Chardonnay and Amelia Pinot Noir, both 2022 vintages, which Aaron Romano refers to as ” Moreover, the vintage’s two highest-scoring wines so far reflect Chile’s upward trajectory with a broader range of grape varieties from areas outside the country’s wine epicenter.”
A new milestone in the history of Amelia Chardonnay 2022, which obtained 93 points -the highest score in the history of Amelia in Wine Spectator and the highest for a Chilean Chardonnay in this publication. Described as a wine “skillfully balancing fresh acidity with a buttery feel, offering flavors of toasted almonds and floral tangelo up front, which give way to elements of salted peach, pineapple, and clove. The finish features marine mist accents echoing core flavors.”
The 2023 Amelia Pinot Noir also received 93 points from the critic, who described it as “fresh and lush, this young red has plenty of appeals, bringing notes of orange peel, rooibos tea and cardamom to the core of red currants and raspberries, and a stimulating acidity giving it a mouthwatering finish around fine, mineral tannins.”
Without a doubt, these significant recognitions reflect our wines’ excellence and great enological consistency in one of the world’s most influential wine industry publications.
