Viña El Principal El Principal

Medium body, tannins and smoothed by time. Medium finish. Little fruit, Earth flavors are very proeminent at this point, you can feel it’s unlikely to improve any further.

Decanted 45 minutes before dinner. Deep ruby-purple color. Blackberry, cherry, menthol, and herbs on the nose, and all carry through to the palate. Fairly tannic early on, but quite rounded by late evening. The herbaceous notes are in your face throughout, so this suffered in comparison to '04 Cos, which was much more orthodox. Paired with grilled shell steak, which made the tannins not matter too much.

The Pequeñas Chile Tasting: Boutique Wineries of Chile (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester) : 83% cabernet sauvignon, 17% carmenère A rather deep, brooding nose with deep, black fruit and some salinity. Very good palate. Initially it seems very safe, but it really opens up explosively in the mouth. There are fascinating layers of flavours which fill the mouth. Lovely.

Strawberry cordial, rather artificially sweet and very short finish. Not great.