De Martino Legado Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

Region: Maipo Valley, Central Valley Region, Chile

Vintage: 2019

Bottle size: 75cl

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon

ABV: 13.5%

Vibrant and fresh fresh, with lots of red fruit and cassis accompanied by notes of tobacco leaf, cedar and violets.

100% destemmed. A wild ferment in stainless steel was followed by 5 days post-ferment maceration. The malolactic fermentation was completed in the tank. Then the wine was matured in 2,500-litre foudres for 24 months.

De Martino are a family estate of Italian heritage and are heralded as being somewhat the pioneers of Chilean wine production. Whilst they have a multitude of accolades, they are renownded for being the first to identify, bottle and export a varietal Carmenere from Chile and also for changing the Chilean wine scene in 2011 when their winemaker, the revered Marcel Retamal, decided that wines should be made completely differently to avoid the over extracted, high alcohol, oaky examples available on the market. To this end, he stated that grapes would be picked earlier, all oenological products such as commercial yeasts, enzymes, tannins would be stopped in favour of spontaneous ferment and indigenous yeasts and finally that zero new oak would be used as to not mask the great fruit they could produce. Needless to say that others soon followed suit! Add to this the fact that they have been voted “winery of the year” on three separate occasions, they were Chile’s first Carbon Neutral Winery, their wines are highly awarded by all critics and journalists (incl. getting top spot in Robert Parkers Chile review) and they continue to push boundaries by elaborating wines with different varietals and different terroirs, they are without doubt the top estate in Chile right now.