Smooth, fruity and elegant are 3 words to describe this little beauty.
There’s an oaky, light black fruit aroma thats a little underwhelming. The taste is different, thankfully. Smooth black fruit, blackcurrant, black cherry with hints of redcurrant and violets in there. Its got bold flavours and excellent length. We had this with Beef and it was great but I really enjoyed this on its own. Ay about £10 a bottle, whole sale price or about £25 at restaurant, its a great wine.
Can you get bad Carmenere? Probably but I’ve yet to taste it. There are better Carmenere’s out there for sure but this is a good one. Lots to smell and taste, aromas mainly of black fruits, cherry, plum with oak, vanilla, leather, tobacco and pepper. Some comes through on the taste but you also get hints of raspberry and strawberries.
It could be a bit more smoother, refined. If I have it with food I would probably be singing it’s praises, on its own I just liked it.
Cono Sur, ‘La Rinconada’ Single Vineyard Block 28, Carmenere, Chile
Chilean wine has a good reputation, wine is consistency good, very few bad bottles. Sure some is average but you get some crackers at great prices. This is not one of them. No only joking.
Its fantastic and at £15 a bottle really good value for what you get.
You get a smell of ripe black fruits with spice, chocolate and herbal notes. This feeds into the taste and is joined with dry, firm tannins. Its more in your face than it maybe could be, not quite gold medal standard but it has received a solid silver medal from IWC which is well deserved.
Luis Felipe Edwards, LFE 900 Single Vineyard Shiraz 2014 blend, Chile
Grand Reserve should mean so much, yet in most countries , like Chile, it means only that its the better wine from that vineyard.
On the nose and taste of you get plum and red cherry. Then next day with a little air you get leather, oak and vanilla. Its got a fair bit of tannins and its pretty dry and not particularly refined which at £15 I’m a little disappointed. Its a decent wine but over priced which is unusual for a chilean wine.
35% Carmenère, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Carignan is the makeup of this Chilian blend. The vineyard has gone organic in the last few years and ages the wine for between 12 and 18 months in french oak. This is a dry red with grippy tannins that really stay around. Its a rich red with herbaceous, blackberry, blackcurrant, spice and coffee notes and flavours and a slate finish undertone. Its a strong blend that will get better with age, softening and mellowing. I had this with steak which was a great combination. but enjoyed it on it’s own.
Decanter gave this a Silver medal, that’s about right. It pretty good, although at £25 a bottle its a little overpriced but not excessively so.
Camila Zuccardi Piligonos del Valle de UCO San Pablo Malbec 2014.
This is a dry red that has wonderful aromas and flavours of red and dark fruits. A little jammy with firm tannins which seem right to sip or have with food. I had this on its own and it’ was soft, fruity and had bags of flavour and then tried it with lamb and it was excellent, marrying with the fat and flavours of the lamb. At £25 a bottle it’s a little overpriced for me, but excellent.
Each year Framingham in Suffolk host a sausage festival. In a good year about 10,000 people are expected to be there. This year the co-op hosted a VIP wine tasting with host Alison from www.wineathome.co.uk and Jane and Peter from Toppesfield Vineyard. There were 6 wines, a Cava, a prosecco, an English white a rose, an Australia Cab Sav and a Chilian Carmenere.
All the wines were good examples. The Cava was light with subtle tropical fruit flavours and breast notes. The prosecco was, well prosecco. I preferred to drink the Cava as it had more depth and flavours. The Toppesfield English Bacchus was truly excellent, it gets more flavours and refined each month I try it. The Shawsgate rose was pretty good, decent red fruit aromas and not as over powering on the taste buds as the colour might suggest. I’m a big Provence rose fan and the darker roses are usually my glass of wine. The 2 reds were a surprise. Carmenere was fruity, a bit of spice and vanilla thrown in, very happy I was. The Cab Sav was a JC moment, possibly the best was served last and one of the best reds I’ve tasted in a long time. Great black and red fruit aromas and flavours, firm but not over powering tannins, long finish and at £9 a bottle very reasonable.
Alison from www.wineathome.co.uk talking about sparkling wine
Co-op wines tried at the Framingham Sausage Festival
This is a full Syrah, with lots of black fruit, spice, cocoa and pepper. This is a mature wine with great structure, flavours, aromas and tannins. Its what you expect from a quality dry red wine. This got a trophy at the International Wine Challenge in 2015.
At under £15 a bottle this is a really grown up wine.
Typical Argentinian Malbec, bloody good one though.
First decant this wine, give it a little air and wait an hour or three to open up. It makes a difference.There’s aromas of plum, licorice and blackcurrant with spice notes, these follow on the taste and there are firm tannins that stick to the mouth. Its a concentrated wine with good length and at £30 a bottle its on the mark for quality and value.
Solocontigo – Reserva Malbec 2013, Mendoza, Argentina
Exactly what supermarket chilean merlot tastes like. It’s not bad either. Definitely drink now, no point in keeping. A little thin on the aromas and flavours but there’s red currants and hints of the odd blackberry. it won’t win medals but a reasonable party wine for about £7.
