Manina Cabernet Sauvignon

A shopper who picks this up wants to know one plain thing: what does "Cabernet Sauvignon" get me? Grape guides describe it as a red grown across many regions, one that often turns out firmly built wines and shows up often in red blends. Those same guides name black currant, cherry and plum as common fruit references, with noticeable tannin and possible spice from oak, and they add that ripeness, climate and winemaking can move a Cabernet lean and herbal in style or broad and fruit-led. That describes the grape in general, not a taste we can promise in this particular bottle.

Where it comes from rests on a single source: Corks + Cheers lists Manina's Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc as wines from Chile's Central Valley. What is missing is any shopper reaction, since we do not have a shopper rating for this wine.

Corks + Cheers names a winemaker behind the wine: Johnson Scutt, a New Zealand native who grew up on his family's winemaking estate, earned a wine science degree, and has made wine in more than a dozen countries, including Spain, Italy, Hungary and Cyprus, before settling into sourcing work across the Southern Hemisphere. The site's own taste profile for the bottle lists vanilla, plum and spice, describing it as full-bodied and dry with a long finish, and pairs it with grilled steak and aged Asiago cheese.

Price is the steady part. Its regular shelf price held at $12.88 in our September 2026 checks, which puts it toward the lower end of the reds we track. So the choice comes down to one question: is a low-priced Chilean Cabernet worth reaching for on the strength of the grape alone, with no crowd's verdict yet to lean on?

Our call: a confident reach if a named winemaker with real, multi-country experience is enough backing for an inexpensive Chilean Cabernet; Johnson Scutt's own account traces stints from New Zealand and Australia through Spain, Italy and beyond, and the price sits toward the lower end of the reds we track. Pass if you want the crowd's read first; no shopper rating has reached our record yet, so the winemaker's name and the price are what you are buying on.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.