2017 Casa Silva S38 Cabernet Sauvignon Los Lingues Single Block Colchagua Valley Chile 750 ml

From a single, tiny block in Casa Silva’s iconic Los Lingues vineyard, the S38 bottling represents an outrageous value in premium Cabernet. Chile’s top wines have always been some of the best-kept secrets in the wine world, but this might take the cake. Hardly any makes it to the US, making it as rare as it is delicious—a bold, ripe, dark-fruited haymaker of a wine.

It’s a bottle that easily belongs in a lineup of new-wave, $75 Napa Cabernets, so it’s quite the deal even at its usual price. Today, our price turns an excellent deal into a superlative one—this is a wine that belongs on the table of anyone who wishes they could drink premier California Cabernet more often.

It’s a stunning example of Colchagua Cabernet—displaying the “maximum ripeness and concentration” that made the site home a Wine Enthusiast “Wine Region of the Year” award winner.

The S38 is the pinnacle of fifth-generation owner Pablo Silva’s drive to isolate the finest blocks in their prime vineyards, just as Burgundian monks first identified Grand Crus in the middle ages. The culmination of years of intensive study on their vineyards, soils, and grapevine clones, the 2017 is the second-ever release from the most prized block in their premier Los Lingues vineyard—a dramatic site at over 1,400 feet of elevation, which stresses grapevines, yielding small, concentrated berries.

After 125 years, it would be easy for Casa Silva to rest on their laurels. After all, they were one of the pioneering wineries of the Colchagua Valley, planting their first vines in 1892, and have been instrumental in turning the area into a “red wine paradise,” in the words of Vogue. Yet, despite their comfortable status as one of the region’s leaders, they’ve continued to push the envelope—and their S38 Cabernet is the apotheosis of their focus on vineyard- and block-specific bottlings.

Once the grapes arrive at the winery, it would be easy to believe you were watching a top Napa team at work. Careful hand-sorting leads to pristine fermentations in expensive oak tanks, kicked off with a ten-day cold maceration for optimal fruit and velvety tannin extraction. Aging takes place in new French Oak, perfect for imparting that high-dollar polish onto a rich, impressive Cabernet.

Thick and dark in the glass, the nose is opulent, with layer upon layer of fruit packed together. Lush blackberry jam, bright cassis, and musky Indonesian vanilla aromas dance together, hinting at the decadent experience to come. On the palate, the wine is weighty and bold, with a wave of powerful, dark fruit which segues to tobacco, baking spice, and dusty cacao nibs that linger on the long finish.

All that’s left is to get this wine into the glasses of discerning drinkers—and that’s anyone who loves excellent Cabs. Bold, powerful, and limited, it’s got everything in common with the world's best... them except price.