Don Melchor, the Chilean wine crowned as the best in the world and «protected» by the Andes
The wine Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto 2021 was recently chosen as the best in the world by the prestigious magazine Wine Spectator, an award that helps to consolidate the prestige of Chilean wines and that fills with pride this vineyard in the south of the capital that has an experimental solar vineyard to adapt to climate change.
«This is an attractive wine that expresses the place, which has elegance, finesse, harmony, but at the same time has energy, expression and the character of the climate», said to EFE Enrique Tirado, winemaker and general manager of the vineyard.
With 96 points out of a total of 100, Don Melchor became the third Chilean wine in history to be crowned as the best in the world. With a total of 4.5 million boxes of bottled wine exported in October 2024, Chile is the fourth largest exporter of wine worldwide, according to the organization Vinos de Chile.
Brazil was the first destination for Chilean wines in October, followed by the UK and South Korea.
«I always liked the combination of nature and the vineyard with the artistic part. In making wine, there is a lot of art, you use your senses to create a new one and accompany them with engineering, plannig and numbers», added the winemaker.
Protection of the Cordillera
The Don Melchor wine is born in a land of 127 hectares, with a stony soil, marked by the Cordillera de los Andes, where the days are warm and the nights cold.
«In the 2021 harvest we had a very balanced climate at the right time, with rainfall quantity and good temperatures that allowed us to reach the end of the harvest with a great wine», said Tirado.
The imposing Cordillera «protects» the vineyard from extreme weather variations, but the increasing impact of the climate crisis led them to implement in 2018 an experimental solar vineyard, provides valuable information on the relationship between orientation and planting density in vine cultivation.
«It gives us a lot of information about temperature, water and solar radiation and allows us to apply the results in the old vineyard to better adapt it to different climatic conditions», explained the oenologist.
Composed of 60 rows of vines 15 meters long, planted with a spacing of 50 centimeters in the center and 200 centimeters in the perimeter, the vineyard follows a radial pattern and vertical driving of the vines.
«This solar vineyard will guide us on how to achieve, for example, a better water uptake in the soil and a more efficient use of this resource, achieve the highest and best quality in the phenolic compounds of wine, as well as looking at ways of enhancing the biodiversity surrounding the vines», concluded the oenologist.
