Tabali Talud Cabernet Sauvignon (Chile)

This wine is elegant, sumptuous and refined - and reminds us of black Fruit Pastilles!

Ageing in French oak lends the wine great complexity. In the mouth, it is very concentrated with excellent, smooth, silky and firm tannins. This is a well-balanced, fresh wine, packed with fruit in which the notes of blackcurrants, black cherries and spices are especially notable. It has a long and very persistent finish.

The grapes are planted on mountain slopes (or on a 'talud') in the DOM vineyeard - regarded as one of the top 5 Cabernet vineyards in Chile. If you wanted to explain to someone what Cabernet Sauvignon tasted like, you could do a lot worse than showing them this beautiful expression of the variety which demonstrates great purity, concentration and elegance.

Grapes are handpicked at their optimum ripeness, which in winemaker Felipe Muller’s eyes, is when there is good phenolic ripeness with a nice balance of natural acids. Once picked, the grapes are placed carefully into 15kg cases to minimise skin splitting, then bunch selection and sorting takes place. After destalking, the grapes are fermented in small stainless steel tanks at a controlled temperature, allowing for separate small batch vinification. This wine was aged for 18 months in French oak barrels, a third of which are new, before being bottled. In its first vintage, the 2014 it won best Maipo Cab in Chile's acclaimed Descochados wine guide, scoring 94 points.

Try with lean red meats, slow cooked beef or beef ragu.