2012 Domus Aurea Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo Valley Chile 750 ml

Advocate’s Highest Rated 

In Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, from Chile’s excellent 2012 vintage, the Domus Aurea Cabernet Sauvignon swept the competition, earning the country’s highest score for any Cabernet or Bordeaux blend while offering far and away the best value. Warm and sultry, 2012 was “a year of tremendous concentration,” wrote the Wine Advocate, in which Domus Aurea produced a brilliant deep-purple, “powerful and elegant” masterpiece that earned 94+ points. For fans of full-throttle, old-vine Andean reds, the math on this bottle could not be simpler.

Under the direction of owners Ricardo and Isabel Peña and winemaker Jean-Pascal Lacaze, Domus has engineered a seemingly unstoppable run of critical acclaim, including a seven-year streak of scores between 92 and 96 points from The Wine Advocate, and praise as “among the top Cabernets from Chile.” Parker’s publication concluded: “Domus Aurea is possibly the archetype of Cabernet-based wines from Maipo.”

This wine’s unmistakable Maipo Valley character — eucalyptus nose, ultra-concentrated black-fruit core, fine tannins — comes compliments of one of Chile’s most iconic and famous vineyards, Clos Quebrada de Macúl. Planted by the Peña family in the 1970s on the Maipo River terraces, it occupies some of the most exquisite and challenging terroir in the region. Forty-five acres are spread across deep gravelly soil on a 45-degree incline, ensuring perfect drainage. Yields are kept rigorously low; Lacaze’s team evaluates fruit vine-by-vine. While 2012 was a hotter vintage, cold winds swooping down off the snow-frosted Andes cooled and cleansed the berries, leading to the mouthwatering freshness and gorgeous structure that makes this release the hands-down winner and greatest value of the vintage.