My dentist had said I should brush my teeth every day.
“Every day?” I said.
��Every day,” she said.
“Every tooth?” I said.
“Well, no,’’ she said. “Only the ones you want to keep.’’
My dentist is funny. And a little scary.
But, shhhhhhh, I didn’t brush my teeth the day I went to taste Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, which had just placed No. 1 in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list for 2024. (Don’t tell my dentist. She won’t think it’s funny, and she works with pointy instruments).
I was just falling back on my training as an honorary member of the judges’ table a few years ago at the American Fine Wine Competition in North Miami, where five real wine judges as serious as periodontal surgery warned me not to wear anything to the table that might interfere with their sensory interface with the wines. No aftershave lotion or cologne or even dryer-sheet scent on my clothes. Nothing that might reek and ruin their finely tuned noses for wine.
And especially, they warned, no toothpaste, which could render an exquisitely crafted petite sirah worthy of a medal at the American Fine Wine Competition into a mint julep worthy of a blanket of roses in the winner’s circle at the Kentucky Derby.
I was so worried the day I met Isabel Guilisasti, Viña Concha y Toro’s President of Fine Wine, I not only didn’t brush my teeth, I didn’t shower or shave. Such is the dedication I bring to my role as a former honorary judge of the American Fine Wine Competition.
I figured I should hang back at the tasting with her for, well, obvious reasons. For a while, I wasn’t even sure they were going to let me into the restaurant where we were meeting on South Beach for, well, health code reasons.
But Guilisasti, whose company makes Don Melchor in Chile, could not have been nicer. She pulled a chair up right next to mine, leaned in and told me all about the Don Melchor vineyard on the northern bank of the River Maipo in the picturesque foothills of the Andes Mountains.
“It’s a beautiful place,’’ she said, clicking through a slide show. “You really must travel there; maybe take a car over the Andes to Argentina.’’
I made a note that I should do that as soon as possible. (Though maybe not until I took a shower). It’s my considered belief that beautiful wines often come from such beautiful places.
And the deep purple wine from Chile that Guilisasti poured into my glass that day was beautiful. I could have smelled the red fruit and berries coming out of the bottle over any low- to medium-grade aftershave lotion – although I wouldn’t have wanted to try.
The wine harvested from the vineyard about 2,200 feet above sea level is aged 15 months in French oak (68 percent new, 32 percent second use), she said. The 2021 edition, Don Melchor’s 35th vintage, includes 93 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 4 percent Cabernet Franc and 3 percent Merlot grapes.
Or something like that. I might be off by a percentage or two. Guilisasti was telling me all of this, but, honestly, I wasn’t listening closely. I was too busy absorbing the astonishing result.
“A remarkable effort that channels the finesse of the vintage with rich, muscular edges, offering a base of graphite and cassis notes that gather around elegant layers of dried rosemary and white pepper,” Wine Spectator wrote about Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2021. “The richly textured core of raspberry and plum flavors show precision and just enough acidity to keep things sailing onto the finish around well-integrated tannins and touches of cocoa.”
What they said.
I don’t often agree with Wine Spectator but, spoiler alert, I totally agree with them about Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2021. I was honored just to be in the same room with the wine, a monument of wine-making worthy of superlatives. A wine I felt bad not having showered, shaved or even dry-cleaned for the first time we met. I wanted to make a good impression.
Sure, $294 is a lot to spend on a bottle of wine. OK, jaw dropping. But still cheaper than a flight to Chile and a car trip across the Andes to Don Melchor.
Think of the money you’ll save not showering, dry cleaning or brushing your teeth. Just don’t tell my dentist.
Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, SRP $294, https://conchaytoro.com/en/
