I don't recollect when I first tasted this wine from Concha y Toro, Chile 's largest and one of the oldest wine companies, but I distinctly remember it was love at first sight. It is a fairly pedestrian wine, certainly not your Top Chile variety, but it is a couple of notches above Concha y Toro's entry-level Frontera and Sunrise.

We had served it at the farewell dinner organised by the Delhi Wine Club for the outgoing Ambassador of Chile, H.E. Manuel Cardenas, and the Minister Counsellor (Commercial), Nestor Riveros, at Brix, the Italian restaurant at The Grand Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, on August 31, 2003. (I believe the wine we served was of the 2001 vintage). The members loved the wine and since then it has made an appearance at many of our events, especially because it offers great value for money.

In fact, I had declared it the best value for money wine of 2003, along with a South African red. I didn't change my opinion in 2004 and 2005. And in April 2006, Decanter described it (the 2005 vintage) as the "best-value cabernet sauvignon on the planet," adding that it was made in "staggering quantities to exacting standards. It shouldn't work but it does. Mass produced excellence."

My knowledge of wines on the planet may be limited and I'm wary of huge wineries producing quality wines. But I tend to side with Decanter on this one. After all, Don Melchor, one of the best loved quality wines, named after the founder, also comes from this winery. Its massive size (it owns 3,500 hectares) cannot be held against the company.

A medium bodied, dark red, lively and fruity wine, it is full of smooth and rounded tannins. The flavour is redolent of black cherries, dark plums and the blackcurrants typical of this varietal. The practice of 70% barrel aging gives it a vanilla flavour and a touch of American oak, which is unobtrusive on the palate. Sips well on the mid-palate. The after-taste is distinctive and fair for a wine of this category.

Produced from almost equal proportions of grapes from Concha y Toro's vineyards in Maipo, Rapel and Maule valleys, it is quite a representative specimen of how Chile has taken a lead in producing value for money Cabernets.

Because of its very reasonable price of just under US$10, it is an extremely popular wine in the US and the UK, where you will find it being served with pizzas, pastas with meat sauces, risotto, etc. It should go well with mutton biryani, lamb roast, mutton do pyaaza and pork chops. Vegetarians who love their cabernets should find the wine quite palatable because of tannins that are juicy and soft.

CD, which is what it is popularly known, is available in many restaurants, but at Rs 1,900 at Maurya, it's a steal. There is no reason why it should not be made available in the vends at Rs 1,100 or so, at which price point it would still be a good value for money wine. Serve at 18 degrees.

P.S.: The 2004 vintage is very good; 2005 will be even better, when it is available.