Archive for Chilean red wines
November 15, 2007 at 6:06 am · Filed under Rapel Valley, Merlot wine Chile
If you want to broaden your view of Merlot, try this chilean wine. This, and many others from South 
America and places like Washington State and Northern Italy will surely redefine your view of Merlot. If you think of Merlot as the simple, sweet restaurant by-the-glass default, you’re missing out. Move past those wines, and discover Merlot such as this Casa Lapostolle Cuvee Alexander. It has heft and real, elegant wine qualities. What gets my attention is that it’s slightly dryer and more earthy than what I expect from Merlot. This is a very nice wine for US$19 and it has educated my palate. Raise a glass!
Tasting notes:
Berries and earth bouquet
Nice fruit core on the palate, a lot of layers unfold
Very dry finish for Merlot
Chilean wine for share
October 26, 2007 at 4:30 am · Filed under Colchagua Valley, Rapel Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon wine Chile, Shiraz wine Chile
The unique labeling attracts your attention and does a good job communicating the importance of good 
rootstock to making a good wine. The story goes that these are rare ungrafted vines growing in a rarified region. Unlike most of the world’s wine growing regions, here in Colchagua Valley Phylloxera has not destroyed the original vines or forced new vines to be grafted onto resistant root stock.
Seattle based Click Wine Group is partners with giant Agrosuper Viña Ventisquero on Root:1 Chilean Cabernet.
Winemaker Felipe Tosso reports the source of fruit is the Apalta and El Suspiro (”the whisper”) Vineyards in Colchagua Valley, a sub-region of Rapel Valley. The blend is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Syrah, aged about 1 year in French oak barrels.
Outstanding value ($11). Closure: Real cork. Alcohol content: 14%.
Style: Fruit forward, complex, lush, dark fruit, some oak spice.
Tasting Notes: Appearance: Deep ruby translucent. Aromas: Cherry, loganberry, coffee, vanilla, cinnamon, and sage. Rich, well-structured and medium-bodied, the jammy dark fruit flavors merge with spicy cedary oak to create a big dry reverberating finish.
Comment: This unexpectedly fruity and new worldly Chilean Cab goes great with a medium rare steak.
Chilean wine for share
October 26, 2007 at 2:04 am · Filed under Maipo Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon wine Chile
This is growing on me. Unimpressed on initial sample - yeh, it’s a cab. minty, blah blah… accompanied a 
simple meal of venison sausages and chive-spiked mash potato… umm, nice… even in the heat-less cottage (the heating has packed up; on the coldest fecking day of the year).
Wine Tasting Note: Peñalolen Cabernet Sauvignon, 2003, Maipo Valley, Chile.
Listed by Oddbins for 10 Euros.
A smidgen of mint invades the medley of black fruits that dominate the palate. Tannins are fine and dandy, thank you very much, while the length is just as impressive. Serve with food is my conclusion. Lovely and smooth with those venison sausages. An inky twist on the finish. I don’t agree with the Oddbins claim that this is the best value red on their shelves; it ain’t bad but wild claims are the Oddbins norm. A Bordeaux blend with 88% Cabernet, 8% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc. Alcohol 14.5%. Warming. Steak and Kidney pudding… venison… cottage pie… something equally hearty on these cold nights.
Chilean wine for share
October 4, 2007 at 6:09 am · Filed under Rapel Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon wine Chile
During the national holidays, the wine which is an intrinsic accompaniment to the celebration is consumed 
Wine Cabernet Sauvignon, Gracia de Chile. Rapel Valley.abundantly by Chileans, particularly red wine. For this reason, large supermarkets tend to put up their prices and put out products which are not always the best quality. It’s easy to be taken in when paying more in a supermarket, thinking that we are buying a good wine. This is often not the fault of the vineyards, since the wines have a hard time on the journey, waiting in inappropriate warehouses, travelling again and then waiting on the shelves for the consumer, suffering the glare of the lights and the poor music, interrupted by the ads telling you “you need this or that”; all in all, it is easy to buy something which later you regret. In conclusion, if you buy wine in a supermarket, buy a cheap one and try to understand why it has the price it has…..you’ve been warned.
I was invited to a barbecue on the 18th September in the central coastal region. I had to take something with me and on the way I bought this Cabernet Sauvignon Vintage Wine from Vina Gracia, Chile 2006 from a supermarket. I paid about $3.200 [Chilean pesos]. The price is understandable, since it should be kept for several more years in order to be appreciated fully. When a vintage wine is still young, the best thing to do is to uncork it and leave it open for it to “air”; in this way, the wild tannins which still don’t know which way to go, can be dispersed. Leaving it open for a couple of hours, or a day if possible, means that you get an excellent fruity wine, at an excellent price. When I got into the car, I uncorked the bottle, I swilled it round, and I put the cork in again before I set off. I didn’t taste a drop as you can imagine. […]»
Chilean wine for share
September 22, 2007 at 7:23 am · Filed under Choapa Valley, Shiraz wine Chile
Is it Syrah or Shiraz? Not that it matters but unusually for a New World bottling the label uses the 
French Syrah rather than the more established (for non-French wines) Shiraz. Perhaps they are trying to differentiate themselves from the Australians. It matters little.
Tasting Note: Di Martino Legado Syrah, 2005, Choapa Valley, Chile
Everywine £96.99 case. Oddbins £7.49 (not listed on-line). A big lad in every respect apart from the rather closed nose. Big, deep and brooding in colour; bold, rich and concentrated on the palate. There is a little oak but generally smooth and ripe with a lick of pepper on the finish.
Nice enough and good with a Potato, Cheshire Cheese and Spring Onion puff pastry tart but too young and one dimensional to be classed as anything above average.
The Legado Reserva wines come from the family’s own estate in the Maipo Valley. Produced from grapes carefully selected and hand-picked, these wines have good colour, individual personality, great structure, and are concentrated and fruity, expressively representative of each variety. The wines receive 12 months ageing in French oak (except Sauvignon Blanc) and production is limited.
Chilean wine for share
Loading ...
