Color - Dark red
Nose - Raspberry Jam, green bell pepper, cocoa
Taste - This is smooth, slightly fruity with hints of acid from the tannins which are just present on the tip of the tongue. I detect some creamy raspberry tones on the sides of the tongue and vegetal notes on the finish. The wine wants to be a heavy hitter like a Cabernet Sauvignon but falls short though not in a bad way. This is a pleasant wine by itself, though a little too vegetal at times. It has a very nice creamy flavor and texture when paired with cheese. The wine tastes better above 60 degrees. It tastes somewhat bland when served cooler. It's both fruity and vegetal upon my second drinking a few days later, though it remains rather one-dimensional. It has such a light "weight" on my tongue that I am left feeling as if I've just sipped water instead of wine, and sometimes it tastes nearly "flat" I'd say drink the bottle in one sitting as it loses most of it's limited complexity if given time to breathe.
Overall, this is an everyday run-of-the-mill medium-bodied red wine, you can find a thousand out there just like it. If you pick this up when it's on sale for 5.99, then you got a decent price, anything more than that and I'd pass. I would also advice that this is not what you will get if you pick up nearly any other bottle of Carmenere. This doesn't have the Carmenere spice, though it does have the green bell pepper hints that a lot of Carmenere has. It just tastes like a regular red blend, nothing special. You can keep it around for your friends that aren't wine snobs and bring it out a big social events, but I'd pass on it and pick up anything by Columbia-Crest, Redwood Creek or Concha y Toro for the same price and much more (though still rather limited) complexity and depth.
Nice review- I just had this wine anticipating it to be fun and fantastic, but my boyfriend and I decided that the word for it was angry- the weight was heavy and dry on our tounges, and it just about punched us in the face with the bite, so we let it sit and open up for 30 minutes, same thing, 1 hour, same thing..It was $8 bucks on manager special, so maybe the bottle hadn't been kept proper temps causing it to spoil, but I have drank hundreds of wines (and i normally prefer the cheaper ones), but this one was just angry and harsh.. wish it was as good as I wanted it to be!!
ReplyDeleteI have tasted this wine a few times since posting this review, and to be honest my palate has matured a lot since this review. If I were to review this wine again today, my review would match your comments quite a lot. The only area where my palate differs from yours is that I still feel this wine is watery and thin. It's not the best wine out there, and there are great Carmenere blends out there. Sorry your journey with this bottle went so poorly, hopefully your next bottle with make up for it.
ReplyDelete