Anakena Carmenere

Name: Anakena
Color: Red
Varietal: Carmenere
Vintage: 2010
Country/State: Chile
Region: Rapel Valley
Price: $8
Stars: 3.5 (out of 5)

Good deal for the price.  This wine was smooth and fruity, dominated by blackberry and some pepper.  I would prefer it to be a little richer and bigger in the mouth, but for the price it served its purpose as a good wine to pair with pizza.  It was also nice on its own.

Sepia Reserva Pinot Noir

Name: Sepia Reserva Pinot Noir
Color: Red
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2010
Country/State: Chile
Region: Casablanca Valley
Price: $10
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

We had this wine for the first time last night with Kentucky Hot Browns...It was good with dinner, but really opened up and tasted much better a couple of hours later.  This wine definitely benefited from a little air time.  It was very rich, with berry fruits and some earth.  A nice, light bodied wine for a change of pace.  For the price, it's a very good deal.

Santa Alicia Reserva Carmenere

Name: Santa Alicia Reserva
Color: Red
Varietal: Carmenere
Vintage: 2008
Country/State: Chile
Region: Maipo Valley
Price: $8
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

We enjoyed the Santa Alicia Reserva Carmenere last night with pizza and were really pleased with it. This wine was very good, and we quickly finished the bottle before the kids even went to bed, which is rare for us. Usually, we manage to make a bottle last most of the night, but this one went very quickly. We've had a couple of other Carmeneres that we really liked (Tierra del Fuego and Casillero del Diablo), so it's safe to say we are now 3 for 3 with this lovely wine from Chile.

The Santa Alicia featured dark fruits and dark chocolate. It wasn't very complex, but the aromas and flavors were right on target. This is one smooth, delicious wine. The dark chocolate really came through on the mid-palate, and the finish was fairly long. The price makes it a real steal!

Tierra del Fuego Carmenere

Name: Tierra del Fuego Reserva
Color: Red
Varietal: Carmenere
Vintage: 2006
Country/State: Chile
Region: Maule Valley
Price: $15
Stars: 4.5 (out of 5)


We had the Tierra del Fuego Carmenere last night with a dinner of grilled chicken sandwiches (from a Bobby Flay recipe) and pasta. We bought this wine at a little wine store in St. Augustine when Krista and I spent a couple of days there in December for our anniversary. The wine was highly recommended by the store owner and since we both love Carmenere, we were excited to try it.

This wine was right in our comfort zone -- it was big and bold with dark fruit, chocolate, and coffee. It had nice big tannins and a weighty feel in the mouth. We poured it through the Vinturi to get some air into the wine quickly and to tame some of the oak.

We really liked this one. You can't really go wrong with a good Carmenere from Chile.

Chardonnay - Blind Tasting

For Valentine's Day, Krista came up with the idea to do a blind tasting of a few bottles of one type of wine. After debating between several ideas like Sirah/Shiraz, Southern Rhone reds, Petite Sirah, and others, I decided to start with Chardonnay. Not for any real reason other than the fact that Chardonnay is grown all over the world and made in many different varieties. Most of the Chardonnay we prefer is unoaked or at the most, lightly oaked.

I settled on 4 bottles - two from California, one from France, and one from Chile. Here's the line-up:

• Four Vines Naked Chardonnay, (California, Santa Barbara County), 2008, $13
• Michel Dutour "La Roche" Pouilly-Fuisse, (France, Pouilly-Fuisse), 2006, $16
• Cono Sur Chardonnay, (Chile, Central Valley), 2009, $9
• Kunde Estate Chardonnay, (California, Sonoma), 2006, $12

I bagged the bottles, then Krista mixed them up and numbered them:



We sampled each of the wines over the course of the night with cheese, bread, and crackers...



Our notes on the 4 bottles:

#1 - the color of this wine was the most pale of any of the four; it had a nice medium body with aromas and flavors of apples, pears, and citrus...tart...fruit forward, very tasty

#2 - also pale, clear...very limited nose, but extremely nice in the mouth...lemony, very smooth with a very long finish

#3 - similar to #1 in aroma and taste...green apple flavors, tart...refreshing acidity...a little lighter bodied than #1

#4 - sort of like a combination of #2 and #3...lemons, citrus, more on the nose than #2...stronger acidity and a little grassy

_________________________________________________________________

Krista and I both enjoyed all 4 wines very much. There were no clunkers in the bunch. However, we both agreed that #2 stood out as our favorite, followed closely by #1.

It turns out that the winner was the French Chardonnay, Michel Dutour "La Roche" Pouilly-Fuisse. The runner-up was the wine from Chile made by Cono Sur. There was a slight drop-off after these two, meaning that the two Chardonnays from California were our 3rd and 4th favorites from the group.

We had a lot of fun with our little blind tasting and can't wait to do it again with a different batch of wines!!

Casillero del Diablo Carmenere

Name: Casillero del Diablo
Color: Red
Varietal: Carmenere
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: Chile
Region: Rapel Valley
Price: $8
Stars: 4.5 (out of 5)

This Carmenere from Concha y Toro's Casillero del Diablo label is an outstanding bargain. For less than $10, it's a delicious, medium bodied everyday red. We enjoyed a couple of glasses last night with pizza.

The color is a deep, dark purple in the glass, almost like a Syrah. The nose is mostly dark fruit, with chocolate and a hint of tobacco. I tasted dark berries and chocolate, with some good earthy qualities. The finish was very pleasant and quite long. This Carmenere is very smooth, and I highly recommend it.

I can't wait to try the other Carmenere we have at the house -- the Tierra del Fuego, also from Chile.

Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc

Name: Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc
Color: White
Varietal: Sauvignon Blanc
Vintage: 2008
Country/State: Chile
Region: Casablanca Valley
Price: $11
Stars: 4 (out of 5)

The Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc is one I'd been meaning to try for awhile now. I set out to pick up the Nobilo SB, but it was sold out. Then I remembered the Veramonte, stumbled across it, and brought it home. This wine was a pale straw color with a nose of citrus, melons, and white fruit. I also noticed a pretty strong grassy aroma, especially right after opening the bottle. The grassy smell went away as the night went on, leaving more citrus aromas.

The taste was also citrus with grapefruit and a bit of lemon and lime. It was really crisp and refreshing with great acidity. The acid wasn't as tart and overpowering as it can be with some New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. The finish was nice, but not exceptionally long. We drank this wine with Mahi filets, and easily finished the bottle later in the night. Krista and I both really enjoyed our first Chilean white wine and can't wait to more wines from Chile in the future.

Palo Alto Reserve

Name: Palo Alto Reserve
Color: Red
Varietal: Blend (Cabernet Sauvignon/Carmenere/Syrah)
Vintage: 2007
Country/State: Chile
Region: Maule Valley
Price: $10
Stars: 4.5 (out of 5)


We both really liked this blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, and Syrah from Concha y Toro's Palo Alto label from Chile. In the past, we've had the Concha y Toro Casillero Del Diablo Carmenere, and I remember enjoying that wine quite a bit, too...This one was highly recommended by various sources, so when I saw it at my local wine shop, I picked up a bottle for $10. The sales guy mentioned that the Palo Alto has been one of their best sellers lately...After drinking it last night, I can see why. The color was dark purple in the glass with a nose of dark fruit and smoky, earthy aromas. The taste was also dark and smoky. It's kind of hard to describe, but there's an earthiness to this wine that was really enjoyable and rather complex for a $10 wine. It's not as fruit forward as most of the red blends we usually drink, but it was a nice change of pace. The body was medium to full with a rich, warm mouthfeel. It is an excellent dry wine with gripping, but tolerable, tannins that softened quite a bit as the wine sat in the glass.

We drank this wine with steaks that were marinated and grilled. It paired quite nicely with the steaks. I would definitely drink this wine again and highly recommend it.