2008 Lapostolle Casa Carmemere from Rapel Valley in Chile

Hello everyone!! I love this wine!! I don't believe I've blogged this before, but we've had it before maybe a year or more ago. It was the 2005 vintage and I was very impressed with it. Unfortunately, I had to hunt around a bit to find it again, and when I did it was in the 2008 vintage. This wine won an award from Wine Enthusiast for "best new world wine". We had this with broiled flank steak, onion and shitake, and cheesy polenta. This was a very good pairing. The wine had a lovely deep purple violet color. The nose carried aromas of blackberry with some cherry, plum, and blueberry. There is also a nice toasty vanilla component. On the palate it has a beautiful silky mouth feel. It is medium to full bodied with this beautiful smoothness to the tannins. It has a lingering finish. Very fruity but a bit of chocolate and a little spiciness on the finish. This wine is very well structured. I need to find more of it. Indeed, because of this wine I now had 3 other chilean carmeneres sitting in my little "stash". I'm looking forward to trying them.

2009 Leyda Pinot Noir from Chile

We had this wine tonight with pasta and pork chops with peppers. This light red was a nice compliment to the tangy and well seasoned pork chops. The color was brick red. The nose and the flavor profile started with lots of cherry. As it opened the cherry dissipated and strawberry and blueberry emerged. After opening for an hour or so the blueberry and cherry disappeared completely, and we were left with strawberry and plum! This wine also had a nice forest, mulch component and a little bit of spice. I bought this at Ashes for maybe $12. It was recommended as a Burgundian pinot. Honestly, when we first opened this wine I wasn't too sold on it as Burgundian. However, as it opened it developed more of the delicate complexity expected of a French burgundy. This is a very nice wine for the price. Also, it will be even better in a couple of years. I really love having this style of wine around because it is sooooo food friendly. I'll probably keep this around (or set some aside).

2008 Anakema 2008 White Blend

Sorry, I've fallen behind in my blogging responsibilities. Also, we've not been drinking a lot of new wines. Last week we had this white blend form Chile. it was 35% Viognier, 35% Reisling, and 30% Chardonnay. This wine received 89 points from the International Wine Cellar. I picked this up in Atlanta from Total Wine for $15. We had this with a roasted chicken dish with greens, onions and toasted squares of bread. The dish was delicious from Food and Wine magazine December issue page 106. The wine was not so good.

The color was pale straw. The aromas were apricot with minerality and a touch of smokey oak. The flavor profile was similar with apricot and pear. The flavors were a little too subtle. It had a nice minerality and bright, refreshing acidity, but it just seemed disjointed. Overall, while I liked the minerality of this wine, it lacked personality. Definitely a pass.

2007 Ona Anakena Malbec Limited Edition

Hello all!! I should preface this by saying that I'm really not a big malbec fan. They tend to be a little too big for my palate. Also, we don't do a lot of barbeque, tending to eat foods and drink wines that are either Italian or French in style and flavor profile. But, my husband, Al, has always had a soft spot for the malbec and syrah wines that I tend to avoid. So, I asked my son, Mike, to bring one up from Atlanta Total Wine has a catalog, so I picked one out and Mike brought it to me on his last trip to Knoxville. We were having barbeque pork on Labor Day and I thought this malbec would be a good pairing. And it was good with the barbeque. I could also see having this with a big roast in the winter. The color on this wine was an extremely dark inky purple. There was a lot going on with the nose. It started out with some pretty heavy oak, but this faded within a half hour or so of opening. The nose opened into dark currents, mulch, and spicy cinnamon and cloves with a bit of violet in the background. On the palate there was the intense jammy dark fruit flavor of currents and blackberry. The tannins were firm and a little harsh. There was lots of bitter chocolate and a bit of tobacco, especially on the finish. It was weak on the mid-palate, which seems odd considering the overall intensity of this wine. I believe this wine would be much better after a few years in the bottle (I'm developing a preference for red wines at about 5 years or more), but I'm not convinced that age will solve the problem in the mid-palate. I think I'll try another malbec next time.