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

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.

A nice little birthday dinner for the Mrs. Barbarian of the household and once again we visited her favorite haunt. She loves to explore the menu, trying new things. Me? I order the same thing every time: New York Strip, medium-rare. The chef here has that steak down pat, so why tempt fate? I limit my explorations to the wine list. The owner of this little small-town bistro always has great stuff on the list and to be honest, like the chef’s steak the wine list has never let me down. On this trip I noted another wine from that Walla Walla place up in Washington, specifically Basel Cellars. We’d really enjoyed their Claret which was a cheap thrill indeed. This other selection was called “Merriment“. What better choice for a celebration? While it was well over 2X the price of the Claret we’d tried before, it still wasn’t outrageously priced as so many reds can be.

Merriment is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. It is also awesome. Mrs. Barbarian loved it. I loved it. Wonderful stuff.

Horrible photograph of a very nice wine.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately… I came down with the flu a while ago and it utterly destroyed my senses of smell and taste for weeks. I’ve been recovering and along the way I’ve enjoyed a few good wines. This is a fine example, Basel Cellars 2006 Claret. Mrs. Barbarian, her sister, and I enjoyed this at our local favorite restaurant last weekend. “Claret” is a British term for “Bordeaux blend” and this indeed is a blend of mostly Bordeaux varietals, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and the a bit of the Rhone thrown in, in the form of Syrah. Basel Cellars is from that wonderful corner of Washington state that the natives call “Walla Walla”… funny name, great wines.

This bottle retails for right around $20 bucks. You really can’t go wrong at that price. Excellent value, and good enough to be a bit better than an everyday wine.

Mrs. Barbarian & I went out for dinner last night. It was Christmas Eve and we’d done nothing to prepare, so when the better half declared “let’s go out” I was already dialling our favorite small town bistro for a reservation. Our little foothills burg had been blanketed with an unusual snowfall. Not that we don’t get snow, it is just we rarely see more than a dusting. For the past nine days we’ve been getting dumped upon. Our home is buried under over 3 feet, and down in town things are Alaskan in appearance. Our favorite bistro was indeed open on this semi-holiday, and we secured a table for two.

Upon arrival we found a festive atmosphere and a likeness of the owner/chef, Chef Martin in snow out front:

We were seated in a comfy spot at the back, beyond a large party of revelers, but adjacent to the wine racks and small bar. We both ordered one of their “signature martinis”… neither of which are really martinis in the traditional sense. Mrs. Barbarian’s was more like a margarita, with a salted rim, and tequila as the main liquor. Mine was called a “Toasted L’Orange” and is a bourbon-based concoction. Both were awesome. Chef Martin had a special for the occasion, a slab of prime rib that looked too good to pass up, so I ordered that along with an onion soup. Mrs. Barbarian ordered a pair of appetizers as her main course, some potato latkes with smoked salmon, and an amazing glazed prawns thing which she prevented me from tasting in a fit of selfishness. Her soup was a squash/curry contrivance that was spec-effing-tacular. Midway through our soups I ordered some wine. Martin’s business partner Steve always has a great wine list and introduces me to all sorts of good stuff. Last time we visited we enjoyed a wonderful Cabernet Franc (review coming soon) so I was paying close attention to that varietal. I didn’t see anything that caught my eye until I ran down the list of blends and here was something at a reasonable price point that just had a promising ring to it: Fall Line Winery Horse Heaven Hills Red Wine 2005, 39% Merlot, 33% Cabernet Franc, and 28% Cabernet Sauvignon.

It proved a wonderful accompaniment to our meal. Smooth and flavorful. Very drinkable. Very deep and satisfying.

The wine retails for around $30, so it is just a bit outside my usual range but I always throw my cheap side under the bus when I go out to eat. Mind you, it still calls out to me when I order so I never do anything stupid like order anything in triple digits! This wine falls into that grey area between “cheap” and “expensive” so I’ll classify it as both. However, I will be pursuing this one on my own and perhaps more of the output from this small winery in Washington state. From what I read on their website they make very limited quantities, so if you want to get yours before I hoard it all for the apocalypse, get off the couch and buy some!

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.

Next up in our parade of value red wines from Chile is this Tabalí Reserva 2005 Cabernet. The label says it comes from the Lumari Valley. It also claims this is Chile’s northernmost wine producing area. Since Chile is in the southern hemisphere that is equivalent to “southernmost” up here. I poked around on Google Earth and found the location. It is about 200 miles north of Santiago. An equivalent latitude here would in the Baja region south of San Diego, or perhaps Austin, Texas.

Chile is of course a long thin country with the Pacific on one side and the high Andes mountains on the other. Lots of rivers flow down from the mountains to the sea, and this valley appears to be fed by two rivers. The bottle label says the Lumari valley is a “magical place.” I can’t make any call on that as I’m thousands of miles away, but if the wine is any indication, it is at least a nice place.

The wine is basic Cab, mildly earthy, with nice flavor. Mrs. Barbarian thought it was “just OK.” I felt a tad better than that about it, as it didn’t blow me away. Don’t get me wrong, it is good. Just not “great.” A nice, drinkable Cabernet for sure. I noted that it opened up quite a bit after the bottle had been uncorked for a few hours. The finish smoothed out and there were some subtleties that became apparent. This is a nice one if you are not into BIG reds. Best of all, it only costs $9.99.

The hardships I endure for you, dear reader. All so that you can pick your cheap wines with confidence.

As you know, Chilean wines are special to me. Mostly because they are such great values. Chile produces some of the world’s finest red wines and, at least for now, they are amazingly inexpensive. Sure, you can find a bottle from Chile for big bucks, but it will be the exception rather than the rule. Most of the wine Chile sends to us Yanquis is right in my spending sweet spot: $5-$25 a bottle. So, I buy a lot of Chilean wines. Just about the only thing with the gravitational mass to pull me from the “South America” part of any wine store or section is a bottle of Petite Sirah, no matter where it is made. So beyond my PSychopathic desire to taste every Petite Sirah ever made, my habits are largely Chileno. So it was with great pleasure that I noted that “Wine Blogging Wednesday” has chosen “Value Reds from Chile as their theme in December.

The point seems to be picking a Chilean Red and writing about it on one particular Wednesday.

The only point a Barbarian recognizes is the one at the end of his sword (or corkscrew as the case may be.) The only rules a Barbarian follows are those he makes for himself! What is good? To crush your grapes, see them driven before you into wine, and to hear the lamentation of the hangover! So I refuse to limit my writing to a single Wednesday! I plan to blog about Value Reds from Chile from now until the appointed day. My cellar is stocked and my laptop is honed and stropped to a fine razor’s edge. Let the blogging begin!

First up is this fine red blend from Chile’s Valle Central by way of Cameron Hughes Wines, and called “Lot 95″.  I chose this one first as the description on the CHwine website uses the word “raid” to describe the creation of this product. Suitable, no? What could possibly be more barbaric than raiding your way across continents and bringing back booty in the form of wine?

I received it as part of a sampler, and CH haven’t even posted the price yet, so think of this as a preview.

This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (50%), Merlot (35%), and that most Chilean of varietals, Carmenère (15%). Mrs. Barbarian is out of town so I drank this one alone. Last night I cooked up some bratwurst, sauteed broccoli (one of my specialties), and a few lightly fried corn tortillas (sounds weird, but trust me, it was awesome) and opened Lot 95 to accompany it. The Brats and Broccoli are a pretty strong flavor combo so this wine will need a backbone of steel to stand up to them. It did not disappoint! Big and bold at the start, yet smooth and strong on the finish. I managed to polish off half the bottle on my own before I sat down to finish my last review with a glass of Lot 95 to keep me company.

This morning I awoke early and the glass and bottle remained at my work desk. Fearlessly I threw caution to the wind and resumed tasting. Sure, it might be seven in the morning but what the hell, I’m a Barbarian! It had gotten a bit earthier overnight, losing some of its alcohol edge. Still uniquely Chilean in that odd mixture of New World flavor and Old World feel. Great stuff!

The hardships I endure for you, dear reader. All so that you can pick your cheap wines with confidence.

 Last week it was two wines from Chile, this week it is two from Washington state… sort of the American equivalent of Chile I guess. Both have dry desert areas, glacier-clad volcanoes that occasionally erupt. Both sport fjords filled with whales, and rugged islands connected by ferry boat, and both produce excellent value wines. They differ in shape, with Chile being long and thin, and Washington being sort of squat. Separated by latitude, but connected in a great attitude towards wine.

I saw these two wines from the Challenger Ridge winery and decided to buy them. After all, they are from the romantically named town of Concrete, Washington. How can you turn that down? Seriously though they turned out to be a complete yin and yang experience. Both cost $17.99, but each was as different from the other as black is to white, male to female, night and day, disco and rock n’ roll, or Bush is to Obama.

The differences I suspect came down to terroir and varietal. On the one hand there was a 2005 Pinot Noir. This is grown in the Puget Sound region of Washington, which I imagine is not the best place on earth to grow grapes. It rains there a lot, and temperatures stay cool all the time (unlike Oregon to the south which can get quite hot in summer.) Of the two, this one was the weaker, by far. It had no backbone, and really not much to offer. The guy in Sideways must be right, Pinot is a hard grape to make wine out from, and if this Pinot is any indication perhaps the efforts up there in Concrete should be directed elsewhere. This wine is not worth eighteen bucks. It isn’t horrible (we did after all DRINK it, unlike some poorly reviewed wines around here!) but it just wasn’t that good either. Mrs. Barbarian, who normally likes most Pinots, had not much nice to say about this one.

On the flip side however is this wonderful 2003 Cabernet/Malbec blend from the Columbia Valley, Washington’s great wine production powerhouse region from over on the dry side of the state. This wine is big, bold, and very flavorful. Everything you expect in a great red wine. Unlike the Pinot, I’d call this a bargain at $17.99. I’ve tasted California reds at 3X this price that were not as good. Good stuff! Give it a try.

Time to try something different here at The Wine Barbarian: Mortal Combat!

I ventured into The Cellar today to pick a wine for dinner. While that sounds pretentious let me dash your illusions as my “cellar” is just an unfinished room in the Barbarian basement where our house’s main electric panel and well equipment resides. It is also underground and at the north side of the house, so it maintains cellar temperature quite well. The workshop fluorescent lights and Costco baker’s racks don’t quite live up to the terminology though.

I’ve got a hankerin’ for something cheap & red, so I perused my selection of Chilean reds, and could not decide between these two, so I did what any good Barbarian would do, I grabbed them both! I plan on opening them shortly for an initial taste, the serving them with dinner. Afterwards, I’ll summarize my thoughts while still in a mildly inebriated state. Before that happens, here are the vital stats on the wines in question:

On the left, coming to the fight with Family history and Provenance in conflict with its low price is Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon. Originating in the Colchagua Valley of Chile, it bears the lofty title of Domaines Barons De Rothchild (Lafite), Mis en Bouteille au Domaine. As I picked up a smattering of French during an earlier phase of rapine & pillaging behaviors, I think that means This property is owned by the Rothchild (Lafite) family and this wine is produced and bottled on that estate. The vintage is 2006 and weighs in with a price tag of a mere $9.99.

On the right is the plucky challenger Sideral. It too boasts a French Connection, with some oversight by Château Dassault, Grand Cru Classé of St. Emilion together with Viña San Pedro of Chile. It is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (84%), Merlot (10%), and Syrah (6%) from the Rapel Valley. With a vintage of 2003 and a price tag of $23.99 it very well could pummel the opposition! The Vinagoth is always pulling for the underdog, but in this case both dogs seem to be purebred and poodley. Who knows which way it will go!

2:15 PM: Cut the foil and open both. The Los Vascos has an artificial cork, which removes with ease and a satisfying “pop!” The kitchen immediately is filled with an earthy wine aroma. A good start! The Sideral has a natural cork, which initially breaks along the top surface when pierced by the corkscrew. It gives up after a short struggle. Pour both into a glass. The Sideral is deeper in color and tone and is more pleasant on the nose than the Los Vascos, which seems to have weakened a bit in the glass.

2:30 PM: Upon initial tasting these are two very different Cabs. The Sideral is big and bold. The Los Vascos more subtle and smooth. The bottles go into hiding now to prevent Mrs. Barbarian from plundering her way through them before dinner. They need peace while they breathe.

3:30 PM Mrs. Barbarian discovers the half-drunk glasses in the kitchen. My lack of attention to detail is once again my undoing. I tell her to try both. She says “the one on the left is a bit flat, but otherwise they taste the same.”

4:30 PM, I’m about to start cooking dinner. Mrs. Barbarian has staretd rooting around the house trying to find open bottles of wine. Finally discovers my hidden cache. Steals some of the Sideral.

5:30 PM Dinner is served. It is a fine meal of chicken breasts, wrapped in a wonderful garlic/egg/herb/flour concoction and baked in a very hot oven. The sides are french fried sweet potatoes and corn on the cob.

Both wines have opened up as far as they’ll go. Both have mellowed and the Los Vascos has lost its weakness and is standing up as a moderately good Cabernet should, but the Cab/Merlot/Syrah blend from Sideral is pummeling it senseless. Much stronger nose and wonderful palate feel has the pricier wine winning the shootout in the end.

The Los Vascos is a fantastic buy at under $10 (by a penny) but the more sophisticated blend won out by a small margin. If paying less and getting more is your goal, you cannot go wrong with the Los Vascos. At$9.99, 40% the cost of the Sideral it almost stood up to the $23.99 wine. Some time spent breathing prior to serving really helped it as well.

Trying things head-to-head is often an enjoyable way to try wines. What made things interesting here was the price disparity between the contenders and how it played out in the end. What do you see as most important: Price or value? In this case the difference between the two was not indicated by the price.