Apaltagua, Grial Carmenere, Colchagua Valley

Opaque dark red violet color; bittersweet chocolate, chocolate, coffee nose; bittersweet chocolate, coffee, tart roasted berry palate; medium-plus finish (14% alcohol)

Vintage Select Industry Tasting (Vintage Select Warehouse, Houston, TX) : Most people associate Carmenere with simple wines. This is anything but. Big nose of black cherry, plum, mineral, spice, and pepper. On the palate, earthy with black cherry, black plum, black raspberry, and tobacco with lots of earthy spices. Finishes with lots of grip balanced by the acidity. Very complete, but even at five years old, very young. Obvious French oak treatment but not overly done. Superb. Best Carmenere I …

A very full bodied wine with great attach. The taste is round and well blanaced with deep concentrated fruit and very long aftertaste

18th Annual Central Carolina Food & Wine Festival (Medallion Center, Columbia, SC.) : This is easily the best Carmenere I have ever tasted. At $54 on discount, it is also the most expensive, and it better be tasty. There is an extreme amount of concentration, most likely from old vines and low yields. You can tell they cold soaked the grapes before fermentation, and let them macerate a little after fermentation. This kind of attention to great wine making can …