Montes Muse Cabernet Sauvignon DO Maipo Valley Chile

This is well integrated on the nose even at three years, with sweet damson and black cherry fruit on first hit. The idea of a new icon wine from Chile’s Maipo Valley meant that I was expecting an unruly blockbuster, but this has clear finesse and character, and a subtle layering up of flavour. It becomes more concentrated with a minute in the glass highlighting blackcurrant and cassis pastille, concentrated ripe Cabernet flavours that are international and polished – distinctively non-Bordeaux in terms of the purity and generosity of its black fruit, with soft pliable tannins, but still with liquorice, cedar and mint leaf on the finish. This doesn’t need a lot of time before drinking, and I would stick to only 30 minutes in a carafe, just to loosen up those aromatics a little. 3.65ph. 70% new oak. 35hl/h yield for the inaugural vintage – just 5,000 bottles, distributed through Bordeaux for everywhere by Argentina and Chile. Aurelio Montes del Campo is the winemaker, still working alongside his father (and founder) Aurelio Montes Baseden.