More wines available from Montes
750ml
Bottle:
$19.80
$22.00
Dusty spices to the blackcurrants and plums with a touch of tobacco and a hint of chili chocolate. Medium- to...
750ml
Bottle:
$16.12
$17.91
Ruby-red in colour, with violet at the rim. The nose is generous; red and black fruit aromas are perfectly balanced...
Pre-Arrival
Montes Cabernet Sauvignon Muse 2019
750ml - 1 Bottle
Bottle:
$124.96
Very intense aromas of blackcurrants, violets, flower stems, bark and wet earth. Very perfumed. Mushrooms, black...
750ml
Bottle:
$22.00
As always, this Carmenère is intense red color with a violet hue. It offers numerous aromas of tremendous intensity....
750ml
Bottle:
$14.94
$16.25
Lemon pastry, lees, bread crust, butter and ripe melon. A full-bodied, buttery chardonnay with creamy, medium acidity...
More Details
Winery
Montes
Vintage: 2012
2012 has, so far been a positive year for wineries around the world. While it may be a little too early to speak of the wines being made in the northern hemisphere, European and North American wineries have already begun reporting that their harvesting season has been generally very good, and are predicting to continue with the kind of successes they saw in 2011. However, 2012 has been something of a late year for France, due to unpredictable weather throughout the summer, and the grapes were ripening considerably later than they did in 2011 (which was, admittedly, an exceptionally early year). French wineries are claiming, though, that this could well turn out to be advantageous, as the slow ripening will allow the resulting wines to express more flavour and features of the terroir they are grown in.
The southern hemisphere has seen ideal climatic conditions in most of the key wine producing countries, and Australia and New Zealand particularly had a superb year, in particular with the Bordeaux varietal grapes that grow there and which love the humidity these countries received plenty of. Also enjoying a fantastic year for weather were wineries across Argentina and Chile, with the Mendoza region claiming that 2012 will be one of their best vintages of the past decade. Similar claims are being made across the Chilean wine regions, where Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon had an especially good year. These two grape varietals also produced characterful wines on the coastal regions of South Africa this year.
Varietal: Carmenere
Carmenere varietal grapes have plenty to offer the world of fine, complex red wines. Their beautiful blue fruits hold plenty of fleshy juice, which produces gorgeously dark red wines packed full of interesting flavors In their native France, Carmenere has the prestigious honor of being amongst the few grape varietals allowed by French law for the inclusion in blended Bordeaux wines, often argued to be the finest to be found anywhere in the world. In other countries, particularly in the New World, Carmenere is still mainly used as a blending varietal, as it adds plenty of unique flavors to the wines it is included in. These often include big, powerful and unusual flavors such as tobacco, chocolate and leather, with the younger wines holding plenty of rich, intense cherry character which can come through beautifully in single variety bottles.
Region: Valle Central
The Valle Central of Chile is widely regarded as being one of the oldest 'New World' wine regions of earth, with a history that extends back over five hundred years to the time of the first European settlers in South America. Whilst they were mainly preoccupied with planting vines for the production of sacramental wines, today, the wine industry of Valle Central has never been stronger. With a wide range of vines flourishing in the region, thanks to the many micro-climates the valley provides, wineries can make the most of their particular location and produce fully ripened grapes of exquisite flavour and character. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Carmenere grow very well all throughout the various areas within Valle Central, and the region is developing a serious reputation for excellence on the world stage.
Country: Chile
Chile has a long and rich wine history which dates back to the Spanish conquistadors of the 16th century, who were the first to discover that the wonderful climate and fertile soils of this South American country were ideal for vine cultivation. It has only been in the past forty or fifty years, however, that Chile as a modern wine producing nation has really had an impact on the rest of the world. Generally relatively cheap in price,Whilst being widely regarded as definitively 'New World' as a wine producing country, Chile has actually been cultivating grapevines for wine production for over five hundred years. The Iberian conquistadors first introduced vines to Chile with which to make sacramental wines, and although these were considerably different in everything from flavor, aroma and character to the wines we associate with Chile today, the country has a long and interesting heritage when it comes to this drink. Chilean wine production as we know it first arose in the country in the mid to late 19th century, when wealthy landowners and industrialists first began planting vineyards as a way of adopting some European class and style. They quickly discovered that the hot climate, sloping mountainsides and oceanic winds provided a perfect terroir for quality wines, and many of these original estates remain today in all their grandeur and beauty, still producing the wines which made the country famous.