HARAS DE PIRQUE | Hussonet | Gran Reserva | Cabernet Sauvignon | 2016
cabernet sauvignon | carmenère

We will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss our reviews. If the wine is tasted more than once, the rating table will be updated so as to reflect all the new impressions and observations.

Tonight we are going to review a legendary wine from Chile’s famous Maipo Valley – Hussonet Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 by Haras de Pirque. This is an organic wine made from cabernet sauvignon and carmenère grapes sourced from the prestigious Maipo Valley, which is famous for exceptional quality cabernet sauvignon wines, as the region’s climacteric and geographical conditions are ideal to allow grapes reach perfect ripeness while preserving acidity and freshness. The wine itself is named after the most successful chilean stallion, fermented on wild yeasts and aged for 12 months in french oak barrels and another 12 months in the bottle in order to obtain rounded tannins and smooth texture on the palate. In fact, this wine is considered a true chilean classic – designed and produced by the Antinori Family and prized for its authenticity. But enough with all that theory, without further ado let’s move on, straight to the tasting!
___________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Very deep and elegant garnet color, with noble crimson shades towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with black fruit and savory flavours: blackcurrant, studded leather, black cherry, horse saddle, ripe blackberry, barnyard, black plum, iron, oak tree bark, venison meat, dried blackcurrant, game meat, dried black cherry and some insistent bloody hints. An instant later the nose is filled with elegant notes of black pepper, nutmeg, sun dried oakwood, tobacco, truffles and very nuanced hints of violets.

Gustatory
The wine is extra-dry, with strong alcohol level, high acidity and ripe tannin. It feels firm, crisp and extracted, with a quite rich and tannic palate and a nuanced fruity-savory accent. This is a bold and complex new-world wine that still feels youthull, a wine that has a quite oaky and smoky profile and a bitter-seedy finish. The wine has a very good overall balance, as it feels ripe, well structured and noble, with subtle hints of elegance.

Aftertaste
The wine has a long finish and a very pleasing, seedy-ripe aftertaste.
___________________________________________________________________________

This is definitely an excellent wine of Chile and, with a total of 92.8 points scored, this wine is right there, among the best wines we’ve rated so far. Check our complete database on the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines that we have tasted and reviewed or go to the about us page and find out more about our exquisite rating system.

Conclusion: this is a wine that is a bit too young to be enjoyed today, as its acidity and tannins needs to settle down – a wine that will reach its peak in the next 3 or 4 years of bottle ageing, as this is a wine with a great ageing potential. Just remember to keep on eye on it, as it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late. To be honest, we’ve been really impressed by this wine – well structured, with nicely integrated alcohol, mouth-watering acidity, ripe tannins and subtle hints of future elegance, this wine is a true classic of new-world’s cabernet sauvignon wines. In order to complement the wine’s savouriness, we would suggest to pair it with peppery dishes with highlighted natural meaty-umami flavours, like for example a very-rare marinated venison steak or some flavoured baked camembert cheese with thyme and crusted pepper mix. Enjoy!

WineStatistics tasting results:

HARAS DE PIRQUE
Hussonet | Gran Reserva | Cabernet Sauvignon | 2016

grape: | cabernet sauvignon | carmenère |

region: Chile | Maipo Valley

overall rating: | 92.8 |

maturity: on the rise

conclusion: excellent | (a must try)

___________________________________________________________________________
© The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. Just remember that there are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.