If you’re after a bang-for-the-buck red high-quality wine – this is it. With its smoky minerality, full blast of red cherries, blackberry, raspberry, and spiciness this Chilean Cinsault is just a pure joy to consume. The acidity perfectly balances the red fruit flavors and the minerality is like a good slap in the face.  If you’d get a similar quality single-varietal wine from, let’s say France, you’d probably have to pay something closer to half a salary or even more.

But this is not French, it is Chilean. Generally speaking, you’ll get a lot of value for your money in Chilean wines. This specific one stems from the Itata Valley in the south of Chile where you have a cooler climate and slightly more rainfall which are great conditions for producing this style of wine with high acidity and intense red fruit flavors.

The entire vineyard is ecologically managed and the grapes hand-harvested. For HUB the juice was left to macerate on the skins for 6 days and then fermented for two weeks in stainless steel tanks. Only natural yeasts are used. After fermentation, the wine was left to do some further maceration for another two weeks before bottling and was then left to mature for 12 months in concrete tanks followed by 8 months of maturation in the bottle. All of this for only 29 euro a bottle, a slam dunk.

Maceration? The grapes are crushed and the juice is left to chill with the skins for a bit. Why? To extract tannin and color.

The short story

Color: clear ruby

On the nose: red cherries, blackberry, raspberry, smoke

Flavor profile: red cherries, blackberry, raspberry, spice, minerality

Tannin: medium

Acidity: medium plus

ABV: 13%

Grape: Cinsault

Agriculture: Ecological

Winemaking: 6 days of maceration before 2 weeks of fermentation in stainless steel tanks, 60% percent of the grapes were fermented as whole bunches. Another 2 weeks of maceration, 12 months of maturation in concrete followed by 8 months of bottle maturation.