Vina Errazuriz - Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve 2012

Wine Enthusiast

La CAV

Best Wine of the Year

Wine Spectator

Jeannie Cho Lee

Falstaff

Vinum Wine Magazine

Patricio Tapia - Descorchados

The shift toward a fresher and more delicate style of Don Maximiano began to take shape around 2016, so this 2011 still belongs to the school of those very heavy and ripe wines. At 14.5º of alcohol, it's warm and succulent, and its time in the bottle has given the tannins a soft texture, although it's still a big wine, a cabernet sauvignon from colluvial soils toward the interior of the Aconcagua Valley with a strong presence on the palate and long flavors that can still wait another decade in the bottle.

James Suckling

This is fabulous with currants, blackberries, raspberries, oyster shell and iodine aromas and flavors. Full body, superfine tannins and a gorgeous austerity plus seriousness. So fine-grained. 75% cabernet sauvignon, 12% carmenere, 8% petit verdot and the rest malbec.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2012 Don Maximiano Founder's Reserve is basically Cabernet Sauvignon with about 12% Carmenere, 8% Petit Verdot and 5% Malbec, from their oldest vineyards. It has more grapes adding freshness as they come from the stony soils closer to the river to compensate a warmer vintage. It has a classical aroma of cassis, blackberries, tobacco, graphite and cedar wood, with a medium to full-bodied palate with abundant, fine and polished but still a little grainy tannins, big bones and good concentration. It has the balance and stuffing to age well. Drink 2015-2023.

Errazuriz is one of the leading producers from Chile. I first spent a morning in Madrid tasting while talking with owner Eduardo Chadwick and winemaker Francisco Baettig and later visited them in their impressive estate in Aconcagua. They have a large portfolio and also own Arboleda, Caliterra and Sena. There is a clear welcome shift toward more freshness and less wood in their wines. Francisco, who everyone knows as -Pancho,- clearly favors 2013, a very cold and higher acidity vintage, against the warm 2012. (2011 was also cold and 2009 was very warm.) He refers to the availability of better vegetal material in Chile when discussing improvements in the wines. The winery is located in the heart of the Aconcagua Valley, which is warmer and produces wines with lower acidity than Aconcagua Costa, the coastal part of the appellation, 10 to 12 kilometers from the ocean on schist soils where they also have vineyards. In the last few vintages, the focus has been on finesse, harvesting early, looking for a balance between ripeness and acidity and working everything - in all their wineries - by gravity. I loved the freshness of the new Aconcagua Costa wines and the balance and restraint of the Aconcagua reds. These notes compile different tastings and have the background of plenty of vertical tastings of the same label, which provided great context. The Max Reserva range is the higher volume line, from their 700 hectares of vineyards in Aconcagua (they own a grand total of 1,100 hectares!) that are hand-harvested in small boxes. The wines are aged for one year before bottling. The old family property on Maipo was replanted to vineyards in the spring of 1992. Chadwick chose an array of the best field selections of Cabernet Sauvignon (12 hectares), Cabernet Franc (1.30 hectares), Merlot; (1.45 hectares) and Petit Verdot (1.50 hectares). The selection of vine material included the best Cabernet Sauvignon from Maipo and from the Don Maximiano Estate in the Aconcagua Valley. This 15-hectare vineyard is planted in one of the best sections of the Maipo Valley. The Antumapu soils are especially suited for growing red varieties of exceptional quality. These soils have a shallow strata of clay loam over a stone-filled riverbed of alluvial origin.