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.