Very, very deep blackish red. Darkest of the five wines. Strongly scented. Attractive right off the bat. Citrus scents, leather, roasted meat, graphite. Not much overt fruit, but a hint of raspberry with a little time. Later seemed more like black raspberries and a little oak became apparent. Crisp and fresh on the palate. Rich, good body, good acid as well, and has quite a long finish for a wine in this price range. Nice chewy, grainy tannins on the finish. With some air, gained an interesting, slightly raisiny flavor. Gained a nice core of restrained fruit. Very tasty. The best of the five wines in my view. (Beverages and More, $9.99, $6.99 with members discount card)
2007 Cono Sur Valle Colchagua Carménère
Medium-deep blackish purple. A bit thin at the edge. Floral, perfumed scents. Lily-like scent. Roasted meat. Something reminiscent of a wool rug (reminded me of my days selling oriental carpets). Rather closed on the palate. A bit nondescript. No obvious faults, but very closed still. On the tart side--probably good with rich meat dishes. Grainy, gritty tannins on the finish. With a little time, the wine opened up to reveal citrus scents. Slowly gained in length and body, but still quite closed. Needs time. I tasted all five wines again the following day. This was still tight, but really not bad at all. Will be quite drinkable with a little patience. Probably my second choice among the five--but see the notes on the Explorador wine. (Beverages and More, $8.99, $6.99 with members discount card)
2005 La Playa Valle Colchagua Block Selection Estate Reserve Carménère
Similar in color to the above wine. Very different on the nose, though. Scents of passion fruit, vanilla, and perhaps lime. Meaty scents as well. A bit flat at first on the palate. Not a lot of fruit. Fine, grainy tannins again. Fairly short, but comes back with a certain lingering spiciness at the back of the tongue. The initial impression it left was rather austere. This wine developed a nice chocolatey scent and more apparent acidity on the palate with time, but remained rather unchanged even the following day. (Beverages and More, $8.99, $7.99 with members discount card)
2006 Casillero del Diablo Rapel Valley Carménère
Very deep purplish black, but not quite as deeply colored as the Natura wine. A hint of mint and the scent of wool rugs again. Later meaty scents and something floral that I couldn't pin down. Vanilla scents. Oak. Light-bodied, but balanced on the palate. Pleasant fruit, bright acidity, light tannins. Moderate length. Attractive subtle sweetness on the finish. Not a lot of up-front fruit, but more immediately approachable than either the Cono Sur or La Playa wines. Later strong scent of leather and oak scents more pronounced. Light, but tasty in a delicate, easy sort of way. Still later the oak scents seemed even more pronounced and I began to detect a hint of lime. Overall impression is of light-weightedness. I have also tasted the 2007 version of this which had more character--reminiscent of boysenberries, milk chocolate, and roses. The 2007 had better fruit as well, with a smooth chocolatey finish. (Beverages and More, $7.99, $5.99 with members discount card)
2007 Explorador Central Valley Carménère
Medium-deep purple. Rather closed nose but with a little mint and citrus. Smelled noticeably alcoholic, which made it seem a trifle out of balance, but, at 13.5%, this wasn't the strongest of the five wines (the Natura is 14%, the Casillero del Diablo 13.8%, although label values have to be taken with a grain of salt. I think the label percentage only has to be within 1.5 points of the actual alcohol level. Wine producers use that latitude for a variety of reasons). Light and grapey on the palate. Not a lot of tannin. Seemed fairly short, but with nice suggestions of raisins on the finish. Also a slight, attractive bitterness that reminded me of Valpolicella. Had what seemed a masked core of fruit likely to come forward with time. This wine had changed more than any of the others on the following day. I kept coming back to this one. With air, it gained a balanced sweet fruitiness on the palate that was very attractive. I liked this about as well as the Cono Sur wine. I would buy it again. (Beverages and More, $7.99, $6.99 with members discount card)
Having recently tasted these five wines, the 2007 Casillero del Diablo wine, the three wines of the earlier tasting and the Carménère rosé mentioned in my January 4 post, I can say that Carménère is capable of good things at very attractive prices. The wines all seemed to be marked by distinctly meaty, leathery scents. The other characteristic they shared was finely-grained, almost gritty tannins on the finish. Wines to explore further.
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