Altair Cachapoal Andes spotlight
The official VSPT Wine Group film of San Pedro Cachapoal Andes, the Andean estate where Altair is grown and raised.
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this 2021 Vina San Pedro 'Altair' Tinto Cachapoal Valley, Chile across the open market. Their published U.S. low is $71.50 and the average is $117.84. Our slash is $71.00.
2021 Vina San Pedro 'Altair' Tinto Cachapoal Valley, Chile
Gabriel Mustakis's Andean Cabernet, 90% Sauvignon with Franc lift, a 2021 you can open at $71.
The 2021 Altair is 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Cabernet Franc from Cachapoal Andes: cherry, cassis, graphite, and dried mint. Decanter scored this 2021 at 95. Nick & Moe's lists it at $74, and the Wine-Searcher average sits near $119. Would you take it at $71?
The star of the Andes, from colluvial slopes not a valley slogan
Altair is Viña San Pedro's flagship from the Cachapoal Andes estate at the foot of the range. Gabriel Mustakis builds it from Cabernet Sauvignon with Cabernet Franc, then ages it in barrel, foudre, and a concrete Galileo. Decanter's Inés Salpico scored the 2021 at 95 for purity and mineral tannin. $71 against a $150 typical retail is the openable Chilean icon.
The house
San Pedro planted the Altair vineyard in the late 1990s in Alto Cachapoal. The Cachapoal Andes winery is where the icons are made: Altair, Cabo de Hornos, Sideral.
The wine
90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc. 22 months, with 50% new French oak in the barrel share, plus foudres and 5% Galileo concrete.
The scores
Decanter 95. Descorchados 98. Alistair Cooper MW 97.
The drinker
Decant 45 to 60 minutes. Serve near 62 F. Grilled lamb chops or herb-butter ribeye.
Cherry, cassis, then mint and mineral tannin
The official sheet leads with fresh red cherries and integrated oak. Decanter found red cherry, plum, mulberry, and cassis cloaked in blueberry leaf and dried mint, then firm mineral tannin and a tail of white pepper and vanilla.
San Pedro calls 2021 exceptional in this valley: more winter rain than the year before, then a late-January storm that the drainage handled. The wines came out tense, concentrated, and full of fruit.
Cherry, cassis, plum, mulberry, dried mint, blueberry leaf, cedar.
Concentrated, 14.5% ABV, granular mineral tannin, 22 months mixed vessels.
White pepper, vanilla, length. Decant 45 to 60 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F.
Barrel, foudre, and a concrete Galileo
On the official 2021 Altair sheet the wine aged 22 months, with malolactic happening on its own. The first 16 months split 70% into 225- and 300-liter French barrels (50% new, 20% older), 25% into foudres, and 5% into a Galileo.
Mustakis wants colluvial slope Cabernet for Altair: thinner mid-palate, longer line, more rock. Cabernet Franc adds perfume and a green-herb snap without turning the wine leafy.
Bottled February 13 and 14, 2023. Serve near 62 F. A long decant is for the mint and graphite, not a rescue.
Twenty vintages of an Andean star
Altair debuted in the early 2000s as San Pedro's fine-wine argument from Cachapoal Andes, not from the Curicó bulk heartland.
The Cachapoal Andes winery sits about 110 kilometers south of Santiago at roughly 500 meters, in soils shaped by volcanoes and earthquakes.
Gabriel Mustakis now runs the icons. The 2021 vintage is the current flagship chapter: Cabernet with Franc, mountain tannin, and a drink window that can run two decades on the sheet.
This is the sibling idea to the 2020 Altair already in the shop, one vintage later, same Andean address.
Lamb chops and a serious ribeye
Mineral Cabernet tannin wants char, rosemary, and fat. Garlic-rosemary lamb chops and herb-butter ribeye are the live pairing.
Two plates. One garlic-rosemary lamb chop. One grilled ribeye with herb butter. Both can take Andean Cabernet tannin.
Decant 45 to 60 minutes. Serve 60 to 64 F. The 2021 is still tight. Air is for mint and graphite.
Garlic Rosemary Grilled Lamb Chops
Char, garlic, rosemary, a chop that can stand up to Cachapoal Cabernet.
Why it works: Rosemary and lamb fat echo dried mint and mineral tannin. The wine stays fresh instead of heavy.
View Recipe for garlic rosemary lamb chops (opens in a new tab)
Grilled Ribeye with Herb Butter
A marbled steak and herb butter for cassis, graphite, and cedar.
Why it works: Char and butter soften the tannin. Herbs pull the Cabernet Franc line forward.
View Recipe for grilled ribeye with herb butter (opens in a new tab)Put this Andean Cabernet in the cart
Decanter 95. 90% Cabernet, 10% Franc. $71.
Put it in the cart. This is San Pedro's star from Cachapoal Andes, priced to open.
