Chilean-born Enrique Tirado is the face behind Puente Alto’s premium red wine Don Melchor, responsible for making it one of Chile’s flagship wines, producing what James considers one of the top cabernet sauvignon wines in the country.
Buoyed by China’s positive response towards Chilean wines, Shanghai was chosen as a part of the Don Melchor Asia tour, where Enrique gave master classes and conferences to local professionals and wine amateurs in earlier September. Showing a range of the winery’s top vintages, the tour highlighted the newly released 2011 vintage. A cooler year compared with 2010, grapes were harvested two weeks later than usual, which according to the winemaker, benefited the wine, giving it a complex and fresh expression of the fruit and fine-grained tannins.
Cabernet sauvignon is the dominant grape variety planted at the winery, occupying 90 percent of its 127 hectare vineyards with the rest being cabernet franc (7%), merlot (2%) and petit verdot (1%). For Enrique and his team, a great Don Melchor wine must meet three criteria: the first and foremost is a fresh and pure expression of the cabernet sauvignon grape, then a good concentration and fine-grained premium tannins. 
Judging by the criteria, Enrique believes that the 2010 and 2011 vintages delivered impressive results despite the cool growing season. Indeed, James gave raving reviews for the two wines. Its 2010 vintage is “one of the classic cabernets of Chile,” James comments. Its 2011 vintage did not disappoint either, and was extoled by James as “one of the top cabs as always.”
Enrique is also very confident about the future of Don Melchor and showed JamesSuckling.com barrel samples of 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 vintages, which showed great promises and the vibrant freshness of cabernet sauvignon, great balance and premium texture of tannins that are hallmarks of great Don Melchor.
Another flagship wine from the same region is Almaviva, a joint venture between Concha y Toro, the parent company of Don Melchor, and Bordeaux first growth Chateau Mouton Rothschild. When asked about what makes the two wines different, Enrique jokes and says it is like comparing French food and Chilean food! On a more serious note, he explains that the main difference to him is in the philosophy and concept behind the two wines. Almaviva is more about using different character of grapes in the blend to make a holistic wine, same as a Bordeaux blend. On the other hand, Don Melchor – although also using a small percentage of other grapes – mainly focuses on the character of the cabernet sauvignon grape and wants to reveal its expression through Puente Alto’s different terroirs.
Find James’ scores on Don Melchor’s other famous vintages such as 2001 and 2007 below. Click on wine names for tasting notes and scores.
Here is also a video interview with Enrique where he further explains how the terroir and microclimate of the Puente Alto affect the cabernet sauvignon grape.
Photos from top to bottom: Wines from Don Melchor; Enrique Tirado, winemaker at Don Melchor
– Alexandre Centeleghe
James has tasted them before but not recently. Thanks for your inquiry!
Best,
Rachel