Montes Purple Angel 2020

A consistent Purple Angel that really delivers the carmenere’s plushness when ripened well. Dark olives, blackberries and red chili chocolate with a splash of spice and cigar box. Fleshy and concentrated with plenty of fine-grained tannins that extend to a very creamy finish. 92% carmenere, around half from Marchigue and half from Apalta, with 8% petit verdot. Better from 2025.

The 2020 Carménère Purple Angel contains a dash of Petit Verdot (8%), also from Apalta, Colchagua. It was aged for 18 months in French oak barrels, 70% of them new. Purple in hue. The sun-kissed nose delivers plum and blackberry jam notes over nuanced layers of ash and spice against a balsamic backdrop. Indulgent and broad in the mouth. The expansive, voluminous palate is full of plummy flavor with a juicy flow and a lasting finish of ripe, fruity aromas. The warm year dialed up the sweetness.

Opens with elegant details of plumeria and wet stone that fold over onto the palate, where lively acidity drives the clove-accented red currant and raspberry flavors, adding touches of vanilla bean and baker’s chocolate that persist and echo back the core flavors around fine tannins. Carmenère and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2028.