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.
A few weeks ago I drank a couple $6 Carmenere bottles that weren’t all that bad for the price. During the 
Carmenere wine Chile Solario wine 25% sale at Astor Wines I picked up a couple more from a producer named Solario. It is not unusual that Astor carries wines that you won’t find anywhere else. They will simply stock each varietal from that producer as if they got a huge deal on a bulk sale from the winery. Since finding info on the web about these wines are impossible, you kind of have to trust that the buyers there aren’t buying crap. Solario produces Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and this Carmenere in Chile. Since Chile is on the map for its Merlot and Carmenere, I assumed this one would be better that the random bottles I drank before.
Dark opaque purple color. Intense aromas of dark berries and peppercorn. Full flavor with some toast from the aging I assume. Blackberry is most recognizable characteristic. Finishes quick yet balanced with some peppery spice. Not bad at all. I must say that this is the second of the two I tried. The first bottle tasted flat and its tannins weren’t integrated well. This one tasted remarkably better. I might be inclined to pick up another at the sale price.
I’m constantly trying new wines with the hopes of finding affordable table wines that I can open and not 
feel guilty over any night of the week. While trying to save the pricier bottles for the weekend, I’ve found one wine that never lets me down. With all the buzz about the unbeatable deals coming from Chile these days, it’s not a surprise that I’ve been drinking a $6 Carmenere like it’s going out of style. Turns out the more Carmenere I buy at the $12-$15 range, the more I appreciate the $6-$8 ones as they are far more food friendly.
Vina Calina is a rather large winery owned by Kendall-Jackson with vineyards in several regions of Chile. The Carmenere Reserve is from the Maule Valley, but they also grow their Cabernets in the Colchagua Valley. In fact his bottle is 80% Carmenere, 11% Cabernet (Maule), and another 9% Cabernet (Colchagua) grapes. It spends 9 months in French oak and American oak, contains 13.5% alcohol, and the production was 11,500 cases.
Deep purple color. Aromas of black fruits, spice, and perhaps a touch of leather. Full bodied and velvety on the palate with ripe plum and black pepper. Easy drinking with a long finish. Every sip reveals a balanced and fairly complex flavor that cannot be matched for the price. I’m pretty much buying up the last case at the liquor store in my neighborhood.
This wine had one of those labels I instinctively pass over at the store. Since I knew what I was looking for 
Carmenere winethis time, the only thing that mattered was the varietal. It’s abeled as a reserve 2003 from the Maipo Valley, Chile. Slightly darker than the other Carmenere, this one had aromas of leather and tobacco with a little plum. This wine tasted fatter with more ripe fruit flavors of plum and raison. Noticeably more tannic with a longer finish of spice and some heat. Might be better with another year of aging. Once again not bad for the price.
I cannot deny that the price of these wines have influence on the ratings. With appropriate food pairings, I think the average wine drinker would enjoy these as dinner wines. I’ll pick up a couple to have on standby for a good stewed meat dish.
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