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Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
RedChile2017
By Daniel Min · Tasted 2019-12-05 · Published 2026-09-14 · Updated 2026-09-14
At a glance
In one line
3.5/5 — lower than Vivino's 3.9 average · world avg price US$26 · The flagship grape of Korea's best-selling wine brand.
No outlet-named score found for the 2017 vintage · none listed on Vivino
Market note: Of the eight Montes Alpha wines, Cabernet Sauvignon is the best known, with more than five times as many ratings (66,770) as the Alpha Merlot covered elsewhere in this magazine (12,101, 3.8 overall). The vintage average has held between 3.8 and 4.2 for nearly 30 years since 1996.
Father's note — Daniel Min
Original author of the notes“Good balanced, vanilla.”
What I learned today: when two glasses from one house resemble each other, that's the house's handwriting, not my nose's mistake.
Friday, on the way to the bar I bought two hot chocolates. One for Master Seo too, since he'd worked so hard clearing snow yesterday. I thought he didn't take sweet things, but he opened the lid and quietly drank it all. "That was good."
When the opening prep was done, he poured me a glass of red. Blackberry, plum, tobacco, and vanilla. It resembled yesterday's vanilla. But a little neater than yesterday's, a little quieter.
Today's vanilla walked into the room yesterday's vanilla had left open. Early December when I was twenty-one, that Thursday night when sleet stuck to the window and melted. The last two of the four bottles. Father set the two glasses side by side and looked at me. I smelled them in turn, agonized for a long time, then said, "They're the same." Father didn't laugh, and he didn't shake his head. Instead he emptied both glasses at the same slow pace. I don't know the bottle's name.
I opened the notebook. The two bottles' lines are almost the same. One says "Good balanced." The other, "Good balanced, vanilla." The same three and a half stars, too. This bottle is the one with the vanilla, Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon. I stuck a wine-name Post-it into the notebook. My "They're the same" at twenty-one wasn't a wrong answer. Maybe Father, too, puzzled over those two glasses for a while.
Minjae, arriving late, saw the empty hot chocolate cup and asked if there wasn't one for him. What I learned today: when two glasses from one house resemble each other, that's the house's handwriting, not my nose's mistake.
What this wine is
Montes's founding in 1988 and its outsized presence in Korea — 17 million cumulative bottles as of July 2025, the No. 2 country by volume, No. 1 per capita — are covered in this magazine's Montes Alpha Merlot 2015 piece. Here the focus is on the de facto flagship grape of the Alpha series: Cabernet Sauvignon.
Montes Alpha spans eight wines — Cabernet, Carmenère, Malbec, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. The Cabernet Sauvignon is 100% varietal, sourced from multiple vineyards across Colchagua Valley, at 14% alcohol. The producer's note: "Deep ruby red color, the expression of Cabernet Sauvignon is evident, providing structure and elegance. Lots of berry fruits and hints of tobacco and vanilla. Promising abundant, soft, rounded tannins."
What the world says
I couldn't find an outlet-named review of the 2017 vintage, and none is listed on Vivino either. The Alpha series's Cabernet and Carmenère are generally said to score in the low 90s with James Suckling, but that hasn't been confirmed for this specific vintage.
The Vivino community of 5,727 averages 3.9, with 70% at 4 stars or above. The label overall (66,770 ratings) matches at 3.9 — over five times the rating count of the Montes Alpha Merlot covered elsewhere in this magazine (12,101, 3.8 overall), which tells you Cabernet is simply the more popular label within the house. Keywords lead with oak, vanilla and tobacco (2,853 mentions) ahead of fruit (2,234), then blackberry, blackcurrant and plum, then leather and earth, then cherry and raspberry. Structurally, intensity is 4.2, tannin 3.3 and acidity 3.0 — noticeably firmer tannin than the Alpha Merlot's 2.0. The vintage average has not strayed outside 3.8–4.2 for nearly 30 years since 1996.
"Always great! Became the wine of the house lately... Plum, cherry, blueberry aromas, medium-full body and long finish. Buy a case!" — Vivino review, Nov 2020, 4 stars
"Impressive leather, vegetal and spicy notes. On the mouth the blackberry, sweet spices, organic and earth notes. Long persistence." — Vivino review, Jan 2021, 4 stars
How I drank it
December 5, 2019, 3.5 stars. The note is "Good balanced, vanilla."
I drank two Montes bottles in the same sitting that day — this Alpha Cabernet and the Limited Selection Cabernet Sauvignon–Carmenère 2017 — and gave them the exact same 3.5. The notes read almost identically ("Good balanced." / "Good balanced, vanilla."). Of the four bottles that day, Stag's Leap ARTEMIS 2016 topped out at 4.5, and Napa by N.A.P.A. Michael's Red 2015 got 4.
Compared with the Montes Alpha Merlot 2015 (tasted the same year, November 13, my score 3, community 3.8), my score here is half a point higher. The community gap runs the same direction — Merlot at 3.8, Cabernet at 3.9, with Cabernet slightly ahead. My 3.5 sits 0.4 below the Cabernet community average of 3.9. Alpha Cabernet appears twice more after this: 4 stars for Montes Purple Angel 2018 on October 4, 2023, and 4 stars for Alpha Cabernet 2020 on March 16, 2024 — my Montes scores trend from the 3s up into the 4s over time.
Where this wine shows up
"Top 5 Wines at E-Mart" articles are everywhere, but few are written by someone who has actually drunk the bottle. This picks five wines that already have a note on this magazine and a documented sighting on a Korean hypermarket shelf, with my score set next to Vivino's.
Vivino community data
2017 vintage rating distribution (5727 ratings, average 3.9)
| 5★ | 520 (9%) | |
| 4★ | 3481 (61%) | |
| 3★ | 1561 (27%) | |
| 2★ | 127 (2%) | |
| 1★ | 38 (1%) |
Most-mentioned aromas
| Family | Mentions | Top keywords |
|---|---|---|
| Oak | 2853 | oak 951 · vanilla 607 · tobacco 517 · chocolate 266 · coffee 135 |
| Black fruit | 2234 | blackberry 638 · blackcurrant 461 · plum 267 · cassis 221 · black fruit 204 |
| Earth & leather | 790 | leather 294 · earthy 171 · smoke 113 · mushroom 24 · graphite 22 |
| Red fruit | 641 | cherry 319 · red fruit 96 · strawberry 89 · raspberry 75 · red currant 16 |
| Spice | 631 | pepper 298 · mint 80 · licorice 70 · eucalyptus 43 · cinnamon 37 |
| Vegetal | 122 | bell pepper 39 · green bell pepper 29 · grass 17 · tomato 8 |
| Microbio | 77 | cheese 43 · cream 23 · oil 4 · banana 2 |
Structure: Acidity 3.0/5 · Intensity 4.2/5 · Tannin 3.3/5 · Sweetness 1.7/5
Average by vintage (all vintages: 66770 ratings, average 3.9)
| Vintage | Average | Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 4.2 | 38 |
| 1997 | 3.9 | 53 |
| 1998 | 4.0 | 41 |
| 1999 | 4.2 | 87 |
| 2000 | 4.1 | 59 |
| 2001 | 4.1 | 99 |
| 2002 | 3.8 | 113 |
| 2003 | 3.9 | 145 |
| 2004 | 4.0 | 177 |
| 2005 | 4.0 | 306 |
| 2006 | 3.9 | 467 |
| 2007 | 3.9 | 878 |
| 2008 | 3.9 | 1057 |
| 2009 | 3.8 | 3163 |
| 2010 | 3.8 | 3709 |
| 2011 | 3.8 | 4481 |
| 2012 | 3.8 | 4955 |
| 2013 | 3.9 | 3694 |
| 2014 | 3.9 | 5165 |
| 2015 | 3.8 | 5115 |
| 2016 | 3.9 | 3788 |
| 2017 | 3.9 | 5727 |
| 2018 | 3.9 | 5565 |
| 2019 | 3.9 | 2896 |
| 2020 | 3.9 | 4312 |
| 2021 | 4.0 | 2641 |
| 2022 | 3.9 | 3751 |
| 2023 | 4.0 | 159 |
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→Frequently asked questions
What kind of wine is Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon?
A full-bodied red from Montes in Chile's Colchagua Valley. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon at 14% alcohol. A dense style of blackberry and blackcurrant led by oak, vanilla and tobacco; Vivino 3.9 (2017 vintage, 5,727 ratings). No formal critic score has been confirmed.
How does it compare to Montes Alpha Merlot?
Another label in the same eight-wine Montes Alpha series. Cabernet has been rated by over five times as many people (66,770 vs 12,101) and averages slightly higher on Vivino (3.9 vs 3.8). See this magazine's Montes Alpha Merlot 2015 piece for the same brand's other face.
How much does it cost?
US$26 per 750ml ex-tax (Wine-Searcher, Aug 2026).
What food pairs with it?
Per Vivino: beef, lamb, poultry, game. With tannin at 3.3, it's built for hearty meat dishes — steak or Korean-style marinated short ribs both work. Suggested drinking window: 2020–2027.
Links & sources
View on Vivino · Prices on Wine-Searcher
- Vivino — wine page and community data
- CellarTracker — 2017 Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon entry
- Kobrand Wine & Spirits — Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon product sheet
Read next
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Tasted the same dayMontes Limited Selection Cabernet Sauvignon–Carmenère 2017
Chile · Central Chile★★★½☆Tasted the same dayNapa by N.A.P.A., Michael's Red 2015
United States · Napa★★★★☆Tasted the same dayStag's Leap Wine Cellars ARTEMIS Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
United States · Napa★★★★½Same producerSeña 2012
Chile★★★★½Same producerMontes, Alpha M 2015
Chile · Central Chile★★★½☆Same producer1865 Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc Leyda Valley 2015
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