I was fortunate to be invited by the good folks at Wines of Chile to participate in a tasting of some very fine Carmenere-based wines from Chile. The Carménère grape is a wine grape variety originally planted in the Médoc region of Bordeaux, France, it is a member of the Cabernet family and is widely grown in Chile.
It was a fun night of tasting, many of the more popular wine bloggers from around the country participated including AtlantaWineGuy, WineforNormalPeople, 1WineDude, and mmmWine.
The full lineup included the following wines:
2007 Santa Carolina Reserva
2007 Odfjell Armador
2007 Viu Manent Reserva
2007 Cono Sur Vision2008 Vina La Rosa Barrel Reserve
2007 Ventisquero Grey
2007 Terra Andina- Altos
2004 Carmen Winemaker's Reserve
All of the wines showed very well Wednesday night, there is not a wine I would not buy to drink again. The 2007 Santa Carolina showed a lot of oak early, but at $10, it's a fine bottle of wine. All of the wines offer pretty outstanding values, with most available for under $15.
Notes on some of my favorite bottles appear below:
2007 Odfjell Armador-Terrific coriander and tarry nose. Spice box-Red fruit wrapped in herbal notes. Silky tannins. Great with the steak.
2007 Venisquero Grey-Dark, dark wine. Some herbal notes on the nose. Sophisticated. Old world. Bright red fruit and pepper. Integrated.
2007 Terra Andina Altos--Wow. Kicking bottle of wine for $18. Sweet spice, cedar. Cocoa and coffee notes. Clean profile. Very nice.
2004 Carmen Winemaker's Reserve-Very sophisticated wine. Reminded me of a young Bordeaux. Cedar and red fruit, with spice box and robacco notes. Still wrapped pretty tightly, this has a few years left in the tank. Very nice wine.
Glad you were able to be at the tasting. Good notes too!
ReplyDeleteThis was indeed a most excellent tasting. When I was a retail buyer, I always dreaded when someone would show up with a Carmenere. The bell pepper kills me. Fortunately, the wines of the tasting weren't full of the note. There was one where it was a bit much on the nose, but was well balanced on the palate. I'll be sure to post my own thoughts on this awesome event next week.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree on the Terra Andina Altos, it was my favorite of the evening and showed much better than its $18 price tag.