The red wines begin with the 2008 Merlot, a silky, elegant wine with lovely cherry flavors and aromas, excellent balance and a pure finish. If all value-priced Merlots were this satisfying, its prestige never would have diminished. If there is anyone delivering more bang-for-the buck than Arturo Cousino and his namesake winery Cousino-Macul, I’d like to know about it. One of the first wineries from Chile to make a break-through in the USA market, over the years Cousino has continued to fine-tune his portfolio and the wines are better today than they have ever been. On my recent trip to Chile, I attended a twelve vintage vertical of the Cabernet Sauvignon Antiguas Reserva going back to 1968. The 1968 was right at its peak as was the splendid 1978, the first vintage imported to the USA. There is no reason to think that the current and other recent vintages won’t age as gracefully. If I were a young collector just starting a cellar, this would be an ideal wine to lay down. I will provide details of the tasting on my blog-space on erobertparker.com.Importer: Billington Wines, Springfield, VA; (703) 455-4700; www.cousinomacul.com