Wines of Chile: Carmenere Online Tasting
Friday November 6, 2009
Yesterday I had the chance to run through a series of eight Chilean wines via an online wine tasting hosted by Wines of Chile. All of the wines were either 100% Carmenere or a blend with Cab or Carignan. The tasting featured eight Carmenere wines each introduced by eight young, dynamic winemakers, who took turns speaking to their spotlighted wine.
-
We began with an attention-grabbing $10 treasure and finished up with a delicious $44 dollar Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere blend, with the majority of the wines in the lineup falling under the $20 mark. This tasting offered further testimony to the critical role South America is playing in providing the current market with wines at stellar QPR (Quality to Price Ratio).
-
The wine samples were shipped out prior to the tasting and presented in ascending order by price point. As a side note the Carmenere grape originally came from France (surprise, surprise!), but has in large part been forsaken by the French and is alive and well, thriving in Chile. Check out the Carmenere tasting series here.
Comments
Carmenere can be interesting. It can really be a hit or miss with them. Surprisingly to me, the lower priced ones have several times scored better in my book over the higher priced ones.
Boris: I agree with you. Carmenerè is a very versatile wine variety… I enjoyed very much to show our Santa Carolina Reserva Carmenère 2008 in the Blogger´s Tasting. And very proud of having the lowest priced wine (only US$ 10 for a Wine Enthusiast Best Buy)!!!!
Boris, your take on the Carmenere was inline with what I experienced in the online blogger’s tasting. Thanks for your thoughts on Carmenere!
Not included in the tasting was Montes Alpha Carmenere – a great bargain at $24 from the producers of the iconic Purple Angel!