Joe Fattorini, the wine expert, enlisted to present Viña Concha y Toro’s high-end wines to a select group of top buyers and writers, hit the nail on the head early on in proceedings. At our tasting in the restaurant Sucre, he eagerly shares the observation that wine cognoscenti generally tolerate poor tannins far too readily.
“They don’t realise that much of the world wants a wine that is elegant, supple, generous and soft.” In other words, even a well-heeled customer may far prefer these high-end Chileans to pricier, more revered French rivals.
Top-drawer Chileans are hardly an unknown quantity. Concha y Toro’s Don Melchor is not just a super-Chilean – it has for several years elbowed out many other more established wines to achieve top ratings. So are New World producers, without quite the same burden of history on their shoulders, freer to make wines that appeal to a wider customer base?
We are tasting from Concha y Toro’s Luxury Brand portfolio, which includes (from Chile) Terrunyo, Carmin de Peumo, Amelia and Don Melchor, and from Argentina, the Eolo Single Vineyard Malbec.
Concha Y Toro's fine wine portfolio tasting, Sucre, London, July 7, 2026
Sucre has been chosen as the venue because it’s South American (Argentinian, to be precise), but also because its meaty fare is served as delicate small plates not as slabs of steak. One nice touch is that the high ceilings are wittily adorned by vast chandeliers comprising hundreds of glass decanters.
The restaurant is also serving by-the-glass Don Melchor 2021, the wine that was voted (in 2024) #1 wine in the world by Wine Spectator.
We commence with the comparatively modest Terrunyo Sauvignon Blanc, DO Casablanca Valley 2024 (12% abv, retail £22 a bottle). While this has a fairly typical Sauvignon Blanc flavour profile with gooseberry and a bit of passion fruit, a lot of work has gone into making this wine lighter drinking. It’s truly very refreshing. And the pairing with crab tostada and brown crab mayonnaise is inspired.
However, that wine is immediately eclipsed by the admittedly more expensive Amelia Chardonnay 2024, DO Limarí Valley (13.5% abv, £45 a bottle).
This is exactly what a gastronomic offering should be. This is from the Quebrada Seca vineyard, a cool northern desert with limestone soils producing taut, elegant Chardonnays. It is fresh and concentrated, layered with citrus and hints of stone. The oak is well under control and there’s a creamy mineral palate, a delightful texture and a tangy finish.
Next is the Amelia Pinot Noir 2023, DO Limarí Valley (14.5% abv, £45 bottle), which also hails from the Quebrada Seca vineyard. Perhaps the most striking thing is just how approachable this wine is.
“As a somm, you can recommend this with anything,” says Fattorini. The nose displays cherry and spice and on the palate there are black cherries and some black tea. The tannins are fine-grained and compact.
To my mind, both the premium Amelia wines hit that sweet spot between affordability and quality. Neither are cheap, but with both you are getting something memorable for your money. It’s worth adding, that it’s a hot summer’s day and Concha y Toro is serving the reds quite chilled – something that works a treat, adding even more to the wine’s approachability.
Sucre's small plate gastronomy was put to good use in pairing with Conch y Toro's fine wines
Moving from the ‘international’ varietals, we now savour Carmín de Peumo, DO Cachapoal Valley (14.5% abv, £80 a bottle) made from Carmenère. My wine encyclopedia tells me that Carmenère is “a very minor dark-skinned variety in Bordeaux today”. But its new power base is Chile, where it was discovered 30 years ago that many vines previously thought to be Merlot were in fact this historic variety.
The Peumo Vineyard is located 170m above sea level and extended along the Cachapoal River. This epitomises what Fattorini means in describing the Chilean wines as “elegant, supple, generous and soft.” Concentration is its hallmark. It’s opulent with roasted red pepper spice and cacao – and a big hit, especially in the United States.
At last, we get on to the top-drawer Don Melchor offerings. We taste first the DM/01 by Don Melchor, DO Puente Alsto (14.5% abv, £85 a bottle) and then the Don Melchor DO Puente Alto (15% abv, £125 a bottle). The historic Don Melchor vineyard sits at the foot of the Andes mountains on the northern bank of the Maipo River. The climate is semi-arid Mediterranean.
The DM/01 2022 was launched a year ago, the winery’s first single-plot wine in 35 years, and a wine that highlights the micro parcel-concept as oppose to the ‘chateau concept’. Parcel 01 is the oldest in the Don Melchor vineyard, planted in 1979. Composed of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Cabernet Franc, the wine is aged for 15 months in French oak barrels. The DM/01 wine itself is still very young - these wines can age for decades, not just years - but the brightness and quality is already there.
Don Melchor 2022 has a higher proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon at 97% with a mere 3% Cabernet Franc. This is no hidden gem, more wine royalty: it appeals in an instant equally to the heart and the head even without the ageing it deserves. Elegant and complex, with notes of cedar, red berries and chocolate, this is concentrated with a long, well-balanced finish.
The pairing is with exquisitely tender Argentine sirloin, which rounds of the menu’s roster of gastronomic small plates from chorizo, ham, pork, lamb to sea bass and prawns.
Worth noting is that although the alcohol content of these reds is slightly on the high side, they all carry it well.
Throughout our tasting, Fattorini draws comparisons between these top Chilean wines and French counterparts like Puligny-Montrachet, Pommard and Pauillac. I can see why he does that, but, surely, it won’t be long before these New World offerings find themselves judged solely on their own terms.
