Trader Joe’s imported the Panilonco Carmenere Reserve from the Colchagua Valley in Chile. As with almost all of Trader Joe’s wines there is no information available about this Carmenere. The wine was aged a few months in oak barrels, but since this is a 2009 vintage it could not have been in oak for too long. The alcohol content is 13.5%.
Wine fun fact: Carmenere is one of the original six red wine grape varietals grown in Bordeaux, France. In 1867, Phylloxera hit all the Carmenere vineyards in Europe and wiped out all the Carmenere vines. So there you are, Carmenere is gone, adios, bye, bye. But, years earlier, some Carmenere vine cuttings were smuggled out of France and the wine cuttings were planted in Chile. To compound the problem the Chileans didn’t know they were sneaking Carmenere out of France, they thought they had Merlot plantings. After not figuring out why the “Merlot” tasted funny, they had the vines tested by experts and found they had the only surviving ancestors to France’s Bordeaux Carmenere. The Carmenere grape has gone full circle and is now available again in France.
Deep, dark, but see-thru black cherry red. The nose has bell pepper, a touch of tart cherry, smoked meat and spearmint gum. A combination of raspberry and pepper upfront and then spice and the bite of tannins in the middle. No real finish to speak of, the flavors dissipate quickly.
The upfront flavor was fine, Carmenere is a nice change of pace from the usual grape suspects. I don’t know if I would pair this food, this is more of a bottle you open when you have your first XBox Madden Tournament of the season.
The 2009 tastes better after a couple of days. It’s smoother, more fruity, and much more pleasant to drink after a few days.
Someone gave us a bottle and we found it very pleasant. Ours was a 2007 that we drank 11/22/11.
We purchased 2 bottles of 2010 and hope it too will be pleasant.
Pleasant is sometimes enough.