2015 De Martino Legado Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo Valley Chile 750 ml

Chile’s Rival to Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

The best Cabernets in the world often come at a price. Sure, you can find bargain bottles of the variety everywhere, but they typically taste like they could have been produced anywhere. Popping the cork from a truly expressive bottle of Cab, one whose terroir is evident in every sniff and sip, is a far more elusive experience, and typically, a fairly expensive one. De Martino’s Legado Reserva Cab defies in odds in an expressive Chilean bottle with freshness and energy to spare, that Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate called "A noteworthy Cabernet, at a very attractive price."

The De Martino family of Chile has been specializing in Cabs that epitomize The Advocate’s praise for four generations. Since 1934, they have been working to express the best of what Chile in general, and Maipo in particular, have to offer. And today, with wines like this effusive, delicious 2015 De Martino Legado Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon, they have perfected their ability to put into the bottle what more than 80 years of labor have taught them: That the gravel-based alluvial soils of the Maipo Valley have the potential to grow some of the best Cabernet Sauvignons in the world. Dark and dense, with flavors ranging from ripe plum and cassis to leather, licorice, and spice, De Martino’s efforts make for one serious Cabernet.

At $20, this wine rings in at a fraction of what organically-grown and family-crafted Cabernet Sauvignon usually costs—or, honestly, most Cabernet Sauvignon, period—and it more than delivers the goods. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate explained that the family wanted “to show the typicity of the grape in the Isla de Maipo.” To accomplish that, they harvested organically farmed grapes from ungrafted vines; fermented the juice in stainless steel using indigenous yeast; and then aged the resulting wine in used oak for nearly a year and a half.

James Suckling, in his 92-point review, specifically loved its “aromas of currant, blackberry and walnut [that] follow through to a full body, soft and round tannins and a savory finish.” We couldn’t get enough of its classic notes of cassis, cedar, leather, and graphite that linger on the generous finish.

When Luis Gutierrez of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate said that this “old school” 2015 Reserva “has an incredible balance and a sense of harmony with fine tannins,” we could not agree more. And we’re not surprised: The Chilean wine industry began over a century and a half ago in the Maipo Valley, and even today, the region is home to some of the best bottles in South America. De Martino’s winemaker, Marcelo Retamal, has pointed out that Maipo is the center of Chile’s fine wine industry: “If you take the 10 best Chilean Cabernets, all, or almost all of them, are from Maipo.”

He’s right, but we don’t think he’s going far enough. Because bottles like this 2015 also prove that, in addition to the wines being utterly delicious, they also have the potential to represent thoroughly unexpected value. This one certainly does: $20 for Cabernet of this quality is a rarity not just in Chile, but in the entire world of wine.