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18/20
Purple Angel by Montes 2020
Valle del Colchagua, Valle del Rapel, Region del Valle Central, ChilePurple Angel is the Montes flagship carménère, and in a great year like 2020 in Colchgua, this wine is reaching its zenith. Not that you can drink this for a decade, but it is impressive. The colour is opaque, reflecting its 90/10 mix of carmenere/petit verdot, and was aged 18 months in 70 percent new French oak plus 30 percent second and third-year use. Don’t worry. Given the sophisticated level of amalgamation, you can barely sense the oak, with plenty more to come in the bottle. You can write a lot about his wine, but I think seamless is enough to express the picture at this young age. Aurelio Montes is always proud to say they were never the first to make carménère because, in those days, he thought if it was to become a flagship varietal for Montes or Chile, they wanted to be the best, not the first. They are fully there in 2020 with its gobs of black and blue fruits, dense, sweet tannins, with a savoury, smoky, bay leaf undercurrent. It is 92% carménère split between Apalta and Marchigue (46% each), and 8% petit verdot from Apalta. The fruit is grown on two estate vineyards: Finca de Apalta and El Arcángel de Marchigüe, where the soils are primarily granitic in origin with differing clay content, and old fluvial and glacial stones.Tasted: 21 September 2023Tasted by: Anthony GismondiPrices:| BC | $100.00 | 750ml | BCLS |
| AB | $100.00 | 750ml | select private retailers |
| ON | $95.95 | 750ml | LCBO |
| NS | $74.00 | 750ml | NSLC |
Blend: Carménère - Petit VerdotCSPC: 39055UPC: 696852020596
