Casa Lapostolle Cuvee Alexandre Merlot 2005

January 2, 2008 at 5:21 pm · Filed under Colchagua Valley, Rapel Valley, Merlot wine Chile

Region: Non irrigated 60 year old vines. Apalta Vineyard, Colchagua Valley, Rapel Valley.
Grape: 85% Merlot, 15% Carmenère.
Harvest: Hand-harvested from 8th of April in small baskets of 15 kg. Coming from non irrigated 60 years old vines of limited yields: 5.3 tons/ha (2.5 tons/acre) for the Merlot 3.5 tons/ha (1.5 tons/acre) for the Carmenère. The 2004-2005 season began with a dry winter and a cool and cloudy spring. Summer was dry. During the last two weeks of February, the temperatures climbed, which had the effect of correcting the delays observed during the early stages of the growth. The temperature decreased in March and the month of April was exceptionally sunny, helping to achieve a perfect ripening process. Lower yields combined with great climatic conditions generated and exceptional vintage 2005.

TASTING
Color: Deep red with purple shadows.
Nose: Intense, ripe red fruit typical of Apalta wines. Plums & cherries integrate well with the delicate oak touches of sweet spice, nutmeg and vanilla.
Mouth: A generous attack is followed by a pleasant and smooth mid palate. The finish is persistent and the overall structure is vivacious and well balanced. Ready to drink now or cellar for several years.

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Adobe Carmenere 2004

January 2, 2008 at 7:56 am · Filed under Colchagua Valley, Carmenere wine Chile, Organic Chilean wines

Vineyard: Emiliana Organico
Chilean organic wine

Tasting notes:
Spectacular ruby red color. The fruit-forward nose recalls ripe cherries and plums with a subtle touch of spice and pepper.
The palate starts swite, moves on to full fruit expression, and end with flavorful tannins and a long finish.
This wine is goog convination with pastas, ripe chises and read meats.

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Cremaschi Furlotti Cabernet Sauvignon 2005.

December 17, 2007 at 7:42 am · Filed under Maule Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon wine Chile

Cremaschi Furlotti description:

HARVEST AND PRODUCTION
Once reached the good maturity, second week of april the grapes at harvest should be cool, in the range of 10 to 16° C. If not, must cooling is required. The grapes are crushed in a roller crusher wich destems before crushing. Tartaric acid (grapes natural and principal acid) may be added at this stage, if required, to ensure that the ph of the juice is in the range of 3.2 to 3.6 also are added pectic enzymes to increase color and aromatic extraction.
The fermentation tank is filled with the crushed grapes. the crushed grapes are benefit from contact between the juice and the grape skins for 48 to 72 hours in low temperature (under 15 °c). this technique, increases the aromatic extraction and the color extraction. the juice is then inoculated with a selected pure yeast culture. Fermentation is carried out in stainless steel tanks between 22 and 26 °c during 8 days. pumping over by taking the juice from under the cap of skins and irrigating the skins in an intermittent manner.
The wine is left on skins for three to four days after fermentation has finished or when our winemaker considers that the required amounts of color, flavour and tannin have been extracted. during post - fermentative maceration stage, the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation for action of leuconostoc oenos bacteria, this bacteria is endemic in our vineyard, and its addition is not usually required, and malolactic fermentation ussually occurs naturally. after malolactic fermentation , the wine is allowed to settle and is then racked under carbon dioxide protection (co2) to remove the gross lees. at racking, sulphur dioxide is added to provide between 20 and 35 milligrams per litre free depending on the ph of the wine.
To remove phenolics and bitter tannins is used fine gelatin or albumen. the wine is cold-stabilized by chilling to between -4°c and -2°c. finally, the wine is filtered with diatomites earth. the bottling is carried out in
monoblock gai, with inert gas protection. before the filling, the wine is filtered with pad filtration.

COMMENTS OF THE ENOLOGIST:

Colour
Red ruby with tints purple, clean and brilliant.

Aroma
The wine shows intense aromas to berries, cherries and soft notes to menthol

Palate
In the palate it presents good structure with soft tannins and good persistence.

WINE AND FOOD

To serve with red meats, roast beef, pastas with sauces of meat or accompanying mature cheeses as gruyere or camembert.

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Santa Rita Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Maipo Valley 2003.

November 23, 2007 at 2:43 am · Filed under Maipo Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon wine Chile

This 100% Cabernet is from a very old, very reliable producer in Chile’s Maipo Valley. Their website says they’ve been at it since 1880. Though I haven’t been there and can’t really claim to understand the lay of the land, my sense has long been that the Maipo is somewhat analogous to California’s Central Valley. IOW, you’ve got your Lodi, and you’ve got your Woodbridge.

The Cabernet from this producer has been very good, which is why this particular bottle was such a disappointment. The nose has some mysterious chemical notes overriding cherries. There’s a whiff of burnt oak as well. The first attack of the palate suggests good texture and ripe fruit, but that’s replaced very quickly with more chemicals, burnt oak, and something resembling a pile of burning tires. The finish is pleasantly dry, considering the ripeness of the wine, but the chemical flavors linger unpleasantly.

As mentioned, I’ve liked wines from this producer before. I’ve liked this vintage before. I think one of two things is going on here. First and more likely, as devotees of the church of two buck chuck can tell you, when you’re dealing with wines that are made by the tankful, there can be a huge amount of variation from lot to lot and bottle to bottle. Which makes it all the more amazing when a huge production wine like Ch. St Jean’s Cingue Cepage is selected as “Wine of the Year” by the leading Wine Porn Magazine. In this case, maybe Santa Rita uses oak chips in stainless steel tanks to “barrel age” this wine, and maybe somebody burned the chips that went into this particular tank. Secondly, one of the criticisms that wine geeks level against Trader Joes, perhaps fairly, is that goods are almost by definition distressed before they hit the shelves, so maybe the winery sends their wine to TJ’s once they have accidentally left 100 pallets for a week on a railroad siding during 90 degree weather.

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Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon, Concha y Toro vineyard 2005.

November 23, 2007 at 2:25 am · Filed under Colchagua Valley, Curico Valley, Maipo Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon wine Chile

2005 Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon, ChileIt’s past time that I update a few TJ’s faves. This blog has been around for about a year now, and naturally many of the wines reviewed have been replaced with new vintages on the shelves at your local Trader Joes.

I know that for some readers of this blog, vintage seems like a trivial concern. How much different can the 2004 and the 2005 of a certain wine be? When it comes to large-tank producers, that’s a good point. Winemakers strive for consistency year-to-year, and may even blend some wine between vintages to achieve it. You can make a case that non-vintage is the way to go at some price points, in order to achieve uniform quantity. OTH, weather and other factors can cause huge differences between vintages - and sometimes even between tanks. There was a story not too long ago in the L.A. Times ( I think) about two-buck-chuck aficionados being so attuned to the variable quality of each tankfull of the swill, that they would buy one bottle, taste it in the parking lot, and come back for more if it passed muster. And think about it — it’s an amazing technical achievement to make the entire run of a 50,000 case wine, coming as it does from thousands of different barrels - all taste the same. It’s not like there is one big tank you can use to blend wine all that stuff.

BTW -sometimes, I really wonder. Not that long ago, I heard one winemaker jokingly tell another how simple it would be to swap the 2000 labels on several barrels of Napa Valley Cabernet with 2001 labels. Now this was clearly a joke, but the best jokes start with a grain of truth, don’t they?

The 2005 Casillero Cabernet is decent, if unexciting. The nose features redwood chips, cassis, & blackberry pie. The wine is simple and juicy in the mouth but a touch astringent, leading to a clean, dry finish.

I don’t have a bottle of 2004 laying around to compare it with, but my feeling is that the 04 was a little brighter and more polished than the 05. Still, this is a solid value from a reliable producer.

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