2017 Altair Vineyards & Winery Sideral Red Wine Cachapoal Valley Chile 750 ml

Often, our best discoveries abroad are wines that are well-known in their home countries, but somehow remain elusive on American soil. It always surprises us that this can still happen in a modern age, but time and again, the results prove there’s no substitute for travel. Altair’s Sideral is a prime example: A California-meets-Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignon blend that’s one of the best deals in a country known for them.

The wine’s long been a white whale—a rich, textured red that we’ve been chasing for over a decade, ever since we first tried it on a trip to Chile in 2008. You rarely hear about the Altair wines in the States, but they were one of the first names off somms’ tongues across Santiago: iconic in their native land, yet practically unknown here.

While their grand vin is one of the very best wines made in Chile, we fell hard for their Sideral bottling. It’s the little brother to the $85+ flagship, but delivers a bang-for-the-buck like no other. There was one problem, availability. Finding Altair’s high-end wine is challenging enough outside South America, and the value-priced Sideral is a closely guarded, insiders’ secret.

Our persistence finally paid off. After ten-plus years of chasing, we were finally able to pry some of the 93-point 2017 out of the estate, which we’re able to offer at $20 per bottle—20% off.

The first glass we poured convinced us that all the effort was worth it. A plummy garnet color in the glass, aromatically the wine is beautiful and intense. Blackberries, red plums, and cassis aromas dance out of the glass, with herbs and baking spice playing a supporting role. On the palate, there’s a silky richness that ushers waves of more blackberry, red currant, thyme, hints of vanilla, and mocha to the forefront in a stellar combination.

In a growing region where most vineyards are planted on flat, easy-to-work valley floors, Altair’s vineyard stands out. It’s expensive to farm because it’s planted with a high vine density on a bowl-shaped hillside, and yields are kept exceptionally low—everything is done with quality in mind, cost be damned. That makes sense when you’re selling one of Chile’s most expensive wines, and it makes the Sideral, sourced from the same vineyard, an incredible bargain.

With Cabernet Sauvignon as the main grape, four other varieties are planted across three different soil types to give Margaux-trained winemaker Gonzalo Castro maximum flexibility with the blend. The goal is to keep the Sideral true to its Chilean roots but make it delicious right out of the gate. He’s definitely succeeded.