Casillero del Diablo – Carmenere 2007
The nose on this wine is pretty interesting, with the assistance of my pregnant supersniffer wife we’ve been able to get out of it the following smells leather (wet), vanilla, fresh (hot) bread, dark chocolate (lindt – 80%cocoa), coffee grounds, mulberry, (tiny teeny itty bitty vegemite), jersey caramel, hints of aniseed (going compared to when first popped) and a teensy bit of lemon (tail end of a long sniff), there was something else in there that neither of us could name.
Tasting this drop one was reminded of a Cabernet/Shiraz blend, a fairly decent one – in the sense of everything being integrated nicely together, however the wonderful scents on the nose did not all come across on the palate. There were still the dark fruits one would expect from a deep red wine and the complexity provided by the oak. The drying effect provided by the tannins in the mouth did not feel as silky smooth as a fantastic cab/shiraz blend. However in it’s price range, I don’t think you could go wrong with this one and the 2007 is drinking like you’d expect an 04/05 Cab Shiraz from Barossa to be drinking today.
Personally I susepct that this variety could be used to construct wines with a fantastic backbone with massive cellaring potential, I’m even tempted to buy a few more of this bottle and see how they go over the next five years (happily accepting funding for this research ;)).
ndlt