I do this to make a note of the price, so I can quote it correctly for you dear reader, when I finally sit down – either in an inebriated state, or perhaps even months afterwards, using notes and making sense on a second tasting of what I said while inebriated… right after the first tasting!

You see I often write up the review, then not hit “publish” because my writing just doesn’t make sense. Shocking, I know.

But little photographic nuggets like this are helpful in more ways than one. You see as I was at the check-out counter this particular bottle for some reason did not scan at the register. The cashier was about to call the wine dept when I said “It’s $9.99″ and held up the photo on my phone’s screen. She looked at me like I was an alien. I also noted that she also moved as far away from me as she could within her little cashier’s pen… “Why do you take pictures of things like that?” she inquired, in a tone reserved for subjects such as Furries (really, do NOT google that term. I mean it. Seriously!) I sighed, put my phone in my pocket and, fully expecting her to call security any second, admitted I wrote wine reviews. Suddenly her demeanor changed, she no longer cringed at the far reaches of her workspace, but visibly relaxed and said “oh, that’s interesting!” and carried on checking and bagging my groceries.

What she couldn’t see in that photo, but you can as I’ve blown it up for you, is a strange faux pas committed by the wine dept:

I love a good Cabernet Sauvignon. It is indeed a fine Bordeaux grape, but so is Carmenère, which is a completely different varietal! Sure, Carmenère has often, and even famously, been confused with Merlot, but Cabernet Sauvignon? C’mon! The rest of that paragraph is just so much wine jargon bullshit that when combined with the goofy grape gaffe it nearly sent me into a rage. If I had my battle axe on me I might have gone berserk right there. A barbaric pillaging and burning of the grocery store. Instead I bid the cashier good-bye with a monosyllabic grunt and pushed my shopping cart menacingly out to my car.

I planned to open up the Carmenère in a few days when we expected an old friend of Mrs. Barbarian to come by for dinner. That dinner was postponed though, and I failed at securing this bottle from pillage by Mrs. Barbarian. Sure enough she plundered the cabinet where I keep bottles for imminent consumption, opened it, and drank a glass. To add injury to insult, she then put the bottle into the refrigerator! That is where I found it one morning when I went to make my breakfast… a bottle of Carmenère in the fridge door!

Grrrrr…..

I pulled it out and set it upon the counter. It was a good thing that Mrs. Barbarian wan’t in the house at the time.

We drank the rest of the bottle at dinner, but given that it had been opened, and then refrigerated, I felt that any impressions I had of the wine may have been tainted by the poor treatment torture inflicted upon it by Mrs. Barbarian.

So I went back to the store a few days later. This was after the quake had rocked Chile, and I returned with the goal of buying nothing but Chilean wines. They’re going to need all the help thy can get, since wine is likely their second largest export item after copper, and while the copper mines are all located in the desert north which was largely unaffected by the quake, the vineyards are mostly located in the hardest hit regions of Chile. I bought four bottles of Cono Sur 2008 Carmenère, and once again the cash register didn’t ring it up properly and I said ‘It costs $9.99.” The cashier called the wine department who walked over with the tag for the cashier to scan and it came up $10.99. They had raised the price on me by a buck in under a week! I certainly hope they are not profiting on the tragedy in Chile. I felt like an heel for claiming a dollar discount per-bottle. The cashier eyed me suspiciously while I muttered about having bought the same bottle for $9.99 the week before.

This is not a great wine, but it certainly is a great value wine. Very much like most Chileans, in that you get good quality for a very low price. A wine of this level from here in California would set you back $30—$45, but coming from Chile it is around ten bucks. Viva Chile!

I heartily recommend this wine as a “nightly drinker” value wine. Great with dinners at home, or no particular special occasion. As a Carmenère it doesn’t stand up to many of the samples I’ve tried, but it is certainly a reasonable representation of the grape. Lots of flavor, and stands up to spicy foods well.

Given how hard I worked to get to this point I would have loved to uncovered a gem, but this one wasn’t that amazing. Good, but not great.

Cono Sur 2008 Carmenère
About $10.00
http://www.conosur.com

Enjoyed a “Calcu Super Chilean” tonight with dinner. Drank it before, seemed even better this time.

Above is a photo taken at dessert at our favorite restaurant. Yes, I made a mess of the tablecloth!

Old Review: http://bit.ly/bXV0ZL

As some of you know, I love Chilean wines. They are right in my sweet spot of “Cheap & Red” while also usually being quite good. As you also no doubt know, Chile was struck by a huge, and I mean HUGE earthquake over the weekend. 8.8 on the Richter scale is mind-bogglingly huge. Over 100 times the size of the quake that essentially destroyed the country of Haiti a few weeks ago. The epicenter of the quake in Chile was just west of the critical wine producing regions of Chile, most especially the Colchagua Valley. It is too soon to know what extent the quake will have on wine production

What you may not know is that your author shares a closer to connection to Chile beyond just a love of wine. Though I’ve never been there some in my family have lived there in the past and I have friends in that wonderful country. While the news media keeps heaping praise on Chile for being prepared and not experiencing total Hatian-levels of collapse, the reality is that this earthquake was VERY strong and has caused a significant amount of damage. It will take Chile a while to recover and we should all do our parts. While copper is the leading export, wine and fresh fruit come in close behind, and have the benefit of being consumer goods. (I don’t know about you, but the only copper I collect is in 1¢ increments in a jar on my dresser.) We can help Chile now by purchasing and consuming Chilean goods. I’m doing my part by only buying Chilean wine for the next two months. Sure, I have other stuff cellared and may drink them over the next sixty days, but my dollars at the wine merchant, and grocery store are going solely towards Chilean vintages.

You can help too! Buy Chilean!. Discover the “lost grape of Bordeaux“, some great Cabs, bargain Merlots, and wonderful blends. Chilean wines are every bit as good as what California produces, at usually less than one-third the price. Great value. Great wines. Viva Chile!

I picked up this red today at the grocery store for $10.49. The weather has been atrocious all day and Mrs. Barbarian didn’t want to venture out of the house. However I found myself short a few ingredients for the Sunday dinner I was planning in my head. Braving the elements I dashed into the store, avoiding the cold wet stuff falling from the sky. After I had grabbed the vegetables I sought, along with a few pounds of the flesh of lesser beasts, I wandered over to the wine section and spotted this Chilean. The store had hung a tag up under the bottle telling of a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, and Cabernet Franc… three of my favorite grapes (after Petite Sirah of course!) It was surrounded by a host of Chilean Cabs, all sporting distinctly un-Chilean price tags in the mid-$20—to low-$30 range so my hopes were not high. I lifted the tag to check the price, expecting twenty-something dollars but instead saw $15.00. This store offers a discount if you buy four bottles (any bottles, mix&match), so I grabbed this along with 3 others (a bottle of aussie port, a Nuevo Mundo Cab/Malbec blend, and a California wine I’ll try later this week.) This discount knocked the cost down to $10.49 to be exact, so I’m a happy barbarian!

Dinner was a pasta dish with Italian sausage, along with some baked asparagus, sauteed broccoli/kale, and garlic bread. This wine worked very well with it all… very smooth, lots of flavor, a big sort of presence without being overpowering. Not much nose, but plenty of good stuff going on once it was in the mouth. The label has a watercolor picture of a bull, but this bottle has no bull in it whatsoever. Just a very good wine at a very reasonable price. I may go back a buy a case.

“Calcu”
2006 Red Wine “Super Chilean” from the Valle de Colchagua, Chile
60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Carmenère, 15% Cabernet Franc

EXCELLENT value under $20.

Perhaps this is a dinner table conversation best left to Carl Jung and Robert Pirsig, but…
Is it because the Secreto is so inexpensive, yet pretty good, that I liked it more than this Viu Manent, which was also pretty good, but twice the price of the Secreto?

Then again, this was not a side-by-side comparison. These two tastings happened months apart. Maybe it was the foods paired? Perhaps it was high expectations? Maybe the 2008 vintage doesn’t stand up to 2007? Who knows. While this wine is certainly enjoyable, and a good value at around $18 a bottle, it’s little brother was a delight for under $10.

I think I have one bottle of each still stashed away downstairs so perhaps a head-to-head rematch is in order? Stay tuned.

Viu Manent
Estate collection
2008 Malbec
Colchagua Valley
Chile

I’m not a “shopper”. When I have something to buy at a retail store I go in and out like an elite commando unit. Surgical strike. In. Grab the item. Go. Go. Go! It usually takes me longer to take a shower than it does to buy an item in a store.

I was at Target the other day, to pick up a two household items I was tasked to get by Mrs. Barbarian.. As I was making my way to the checkout at high speed a word in my peripheral vision caused me to stop, pause, and turn my head. What caught my eye was the word “Carmenère”. Visual pattern-matching has always been one of my minor superpowers since I was just a wee Barbarian. Remember those find the words in a square of seemingly random letters puzzles from childhood? Those things are trivial for me. The words themselves, as strong signal just seem to float above the background noise of letters for my brain. Since Petite Sirah and Carmenère seem to be my favorite varietals these days I seem to be able to “see” them even when I’m not looking for them. Even when I am beating a hasty exit from an otherwise uncomfortable situation/

I hardly step into Target more than once a year. I didn’t even know that they sold wine. But there is was, grabbing my attention. From six feet away using only 18 point type. My brain scares me sometimes.

So what is this Carmenère that stopped me in my tracks at Target? It is called “(Oops) 2007 Voluptuous Beauty”. It is a Cabernet Franc & Carmenère blend (84%/16%) from Chile’s Valle Central. The price tag said $9.34, so I figured I might as well buy it. I’ll drink anything…. once.

I brought the wine home and opened it to accompany a nice outdoor dinner of pasta and sauteed broccoli out on the deck. It was a hot evening, but breezy, so quite nice. The pasta was a four cheese ravioli in a pesto sauce. The wine surprised both Mrs. Barbarian and me. I was honestly prepared for the wine to be horrible. After all I bought it from Target! Instead we found it quite drinkable, though not a mind-blower. Just a very good, reasonably cheap red wine.

The Carmenère at only 16% of the blend was barely noticeable, though obviously there. It tasted like a rather earthy Cab Franc, just like I’d expect. Very dark in color. Certainly worth the sub-$10 price. I’ll have a look and see if I can find more examples of their product.

The label is a tad cutesy… OK it is way too cutesy… so cutesy I almost didn’t buy it. But it does tell the tale of the origins of Carmenère and how it was rediscovered in Chile after having thought to be lost. If you can overlook the cutesy marketing this is an OK wine.

http://www.oopswines.com

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Thank you Mr. Dickens for Comparison Only is what we’re here to perform.

My parents were visiting recently, ironically stopping by before departing on a wine tour of the west coast, including Napa & Sonoma, Oregon and Washington. I often say “I aspire to my father’s lifestyle” and I mean it. He is enjoying the rewards due to him from a lifetime of labor by pursuing that which provides him great pleasure. One of these pleasures is the fruit of the vine. All of the finest wines I have ever tasted have been either at my father’s table, or at a table hosted by my father. It is through him that I have come to this passion for the vintners craft.

We made a reservation at our favorite local bistro for a dinner. While we both perused the wine list I spotted a Carmenère, from of all places, Walla Walla, Washington. My father introduced me to Carmenère about a decade ago and told me its story. I know that he visited Chile a few years ago and toured the varietals’ adopted homeland, so I suggested we try it. Pulling paternal rank knowing that he’d be footing the bill when the check arrived, he demurred, saying it was a bit too expensive (at around $42. You see I come by many traits honestly!) Not wanting to let the opportunity pass, I said “I’ll buy it.” He agreed and I ordered up a bottle. The proprietor let me know that it was an excellent choice and that it was one of his last bottles.

How Carmenère came to be planted in Walla Walla, WA is a story I’d love to hear some day, until then I’ll have to let the wine speak for itself. This Beresan Carmenère is a wonderful example of the varietal, which any Chilean winery would be proud to produce. It drinks as I’d expect a good Carmenère to drink; deep, rich, complex, and flavorful. While not as massively dense as some I’ve tried, it certainly isn’t what you would call light. Between the four of us the bottle went pretty fast and my father ordered a bottle of the other Carmenère found on the wine list; a Chilean called Root:1 (at around $32 at the restaurant, likely much less at retail.) I’ve had a Root:1 Cabernet Sauvignon before, but never their Carmenère until now.

It has all the same characteristics of the Beresan Carmenère, but with a slightly lighter flavor with quite a bit more fruit. Perhaps the fact that it is only 75% Carmenère, with the rest being Cabernet sauvignon and Syrah is what gives it the fruit-boost and lighter profile. Honestly they were both excellent, with the Beresan being my favorite of the two.

As Dickens said it is indeed the best and worst of times. A time when a modestly wealthy gentleman much watch his expenses due to the foolishness of the great titans of Finance who brought upon us this winter of despair. But it is also our Spring of hope, with everything before us, such that amazing fruits of far off continents are available to us for a few dollars here and there. Savor the fruits where you find them.

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.

Links:
Beresan Wines.
Root:1 Wines.

I saw this Chilean Carmenère at my local wine merchant and had to give it a try. I grabbed it and brought it home, looking forward to a big, dark, teeth-staining experience frequently found with Carmenère.

I planned to have it with a big steak dinner over the weekend, and as it is young, and my wine storage area is a tad chilly this time of year, I opened it up to breathe about three and a half hours before dinner. I did take a small sample after opening. I noted the cork was stained dark red, always a good sign. The sample tasted a bit light, but it was also cold, so I hoped it would open up as it sat open for a bit. I went about my usual weekend business around the house; terrorizing neighbors, sharpening axes, you know… routine.

In the course of some activity about an hour and a half before dinner, I noted Mrs. Barbarian with a wine glass. Damn her! She found my bottle. Note to self, HIDE IT next time. Upon quizzing her she admitted to be on her second glass. Sigh. I told her it was for dinner and that I’d like to try save it for then. She said she liked it though.

When dinner arrived I poured myself a glass (and topped up Mrs. Barbarian’s) and noted with a cocked eyebrow that it appeared that more than what she claimed to have drank, plus my small taste, was missing. Well, in hindsight I’d have been happy to have her drink it all, as I did not like it much.

The wine in question here is a 2007 Viña Chocalan Carmenère. It LOOKS great. Deep. Dark. But it tastes too light to me. I love big bold wines, and while this one looked the part, it could not deliver the goods. All hat, no cattle. All shout, no battle.

Oh well, at least one of us likes it. Mrs. Barbarian drank the rest of it.

After Mrs. Barbarian looted and pillaged her way through Plan A, I hid Plan B away and out of her reach. Thankfully Mrs. Barbarian is diminutive in stature and cannot reach high places around the house, and all I have to do to save anything precious from her is slide it onto a top shelf somewhere. Not exactly the best place to store wine, but it only had to stay there a day.

In vino veritas indeed. I do not know what family dinners are like at your household but I know our table becomes a wonderful place in the presence of a good wine. Monday night when I opened this bottle was one of those instances. The Mrs made some red-peppery-garlicy pasta while I sauteed my infamous broccoli, in and of itself also a little stiff on the garlic end of the scale. It was a modest meal, made in a wonderful harmony by the two of us around our stove. Midway through cooking I opened the wine and took my first taste. Mmmmmm. The Mrs takes her share and makes the same happy noises.

At the table the wine flows, the garlic grows, and the conversation wanders off along tangents of life, love, history, markets, travel, economics, cultures, dreams, recreation, desires, and goals. A mundane meal made truly wonderful by the presence of a great wine!

So what is this wine? Let’s just say it is our little secret.

Between you and me, this Viu Manent Secreto 2007 Malbec is worth your efforts to find. Wait, what’s that? A Chilean Malbec? Indeed it is! From the Colchagua Valley. Malbec doesn’t have to be from Argentina, (or indeed France, though you’ll hardly ever find that word on a French bottle, it is inside plenty of them.) “But why Vinagoth, why?” you ask… “Why choose a Malbec to write about on Wine Blogging Wednesday when Chile has so many wines it specializes in, including one of your favorites!?”

You already know the answer to that, I’m a Barbarian, I follow no rules!

I will say this Malbec is one of the finest values I’ve ever enjoyed. The cost? $9.99. Yep, you read right. NINE DOLLARS AND NINETY-NINE CENTS! A sawbuck minus a penny. A tenner and it is yours.

Mrs. Barbarian even violated long-standing household wine protocol and poured the last glass for herself! That is how good this wine is. To further underscore the point when the bottle was gone and I reached into the wine cabinet for an encore I grabbed a Napa Cab… an Oak Knoll District Cabernet Sauvignon.. a >$40 wine that I felt would be the only thing that could top the Chilean Secreto. Both the Mrs & I looked at each other in abject disappointment. “This is not as good as the first one” said the better half of the Barbarian household. I agreed. The conversation sank like the proverbial lead balloon. Dinner ended on a whimper. Think about that. Here is a cheap red wine that blew the doors off a Napa Cabernet. Mind you that cab could use some years in the bottle, and I plan on doing so. But still.

Nuestro secretito. Our little secret. GO BUY THIS WINE.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been shopping with an eye towards today… the big day. Wine Blogging Wednesday featuring Value Reds from Chile. Dear reader… I was born for this moment. You know this. Nobody loves cheap red wine like the Vinagoth. Cheap GOOD red wines abound on the “South America” shelf of your local wine merchant. Trust me. You will find values that will blow your mind. Stuff that puts some of California’s finest to shame in terms of value for the dollar (or peso as the case may be.) I can blather on endlessly about the excellent wines coming from Chile these days and I often do!

I’ve drank this wine before, but never written about it. So when I spotted it on a recent jaunt through the grocery store I snagged a bottle specifically for today’s post. It is a Cono Sur 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon/Carménère. This my friends is a fully buzzword compliant Chilean Value Red. It mixes the well-known standard of the wine industry, Cabernet Sauvignon, with the signature grape of Chile, Carménère. It comes from the legendary viticultural are of Chile’s Colchagua Valley. It is made from organically grown grapes. The vineyard workers commute by bicycle for goodness sakes. Drinking this wine makes you feel better than driving a Prius! By swallowing this liquid, you are saving the planet! Hell, why not drink it while you’re driving your Prius?

Oh wait… nevermind.

Best of all, you can save the planet for under 12 bucks as this wine set me back a mere $11.99. Yep a dozen dollars for this fine example of Planetary Defense.

I really looked forward to making this MY contribution to this month’s WBW. But, like any wise man, I grabbed another value red from Chile as a backup. Good thing to. You see… I wanted to tell you all about my experience with this wine. From buying, to opening, tasting, smelling, etc. I wanted to describe how the sophisticated Cabernet tempers the ballsy Carménère. To describe the nose, the feel, the finish. The full sensory and empirical experience.

Unfortunately Mrs. Barbarian drank it all.

Sigh. I managed to grab a small sip and it was good. The Mrs. gave me that smirky grin that only wives can get away with. Had I done the same thing and offered that smirky grin in explanation she’d have unleashed the lawyers and taken me for every penny and left me with the shirt on my back… if that. She obviously liked it, but she doesn’t write the reviews around here.

So… on to Plan B.