Maquis, Colchagua Valley (Chile) Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

 This is surely among the most serious renditions of Cabernet Sauvignon that you can buy in the USA for a suggested retail price of $20.  Whether it is also the “best” Cab you can buy for $20 is an entirely separate matter, as the old cliché is true that “there’s no accounting for taste.”  But to clue you in, what I mean by “serious” is that this tastes and texturally “feels” like Bordeaux from the late 1970s…which was still available to be tasted when I was starting to study wine.  It is all about dark, dark fruit tones — cassis and black currants — and no evidence of residual sugar (it is now pretty standard to leave about 3 grams per liter to buffer tannin and round out the finish of Cabernets, and not uncommon to leave more).  Add to this that there’s a notable aromatic note of dried herbs and a lightly “weedy” flavor tinge (which remains relatively common in Chile but is rarely evident except in the coolest years in Bordeaux), and you’ve got something like a “flashback” to a good vintage like 1975 from the Medoc or “Left Bank.”  In any case, likening a $20 wine to 1975 Bordeaux is very high praise for anyone who knows and loves those old wines — or who will learn to love them at first blush — but this is very distinctive Cabernet by current global standards.  The wine will benefit massively from pairing with robust food with some dietary fat, and either grilled lamb chops or braised lamb shanks come immediately to mind.