Santa Rita Casa Real Cabernet Sauvignon 1998

The 1998 Santa Rita Casa Real Cabernet Sauvignon is a rare and compelling glimpse into mature Maipo Valley Cabernet, showing how structure and site can carry a wine gracefully across decades. Now fully tertiary, it offers nuance and elegance rather than raw power.

The colour has softened to a translucent garnet with pronounced brick edges. Aromatically, it is deeply evocative: dried blackcurrant, cedar chest, leather, tobacco, forest floor and graphite, with subtle balsamic and menthol notes emerging with air.

On the palate, the wine is delicate yet persistent. Fruit has shifted firmly into the savoury spectrum; dried plum, sour cherry and tea leaf supported by resolved tannins that provide shape without grip. Acidity remains surprisingly intact, carrying the wine through a long, gentle finish with echoes of spice and old oak.