Fortunately, the folks at Montes Winery, headquartered in Chile, have answered my prayers with their 2008 “Classic Series” Cabernet Sauvignon.  The 2008 Montes “Classic Series” Cabernet Sauvignon has renewed my hope and given me the desire to turn the page to seek out more top of the line, grade-A, inexpensive Cabernets like this one.

Consisting of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot, this particular wine was aged in oak for 6 months.  The 2008 Montes “Classic Series” Cabernet Sauvignon delivers a respectable serving of dark fruit flavors, alluring spices with chocolate notes that are very appealing and perfect for just about any day or time. It also will pair quite nicely with a variety of grilled foods and late-night snacks.

3 stars out 4.  Restored my faith that there are Cabs costing less than 15 bucks that taste great!  Look for the wine label with the benevolent looking angel on it.

(Price: $10.49)

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It’s a “two-fer” folks – two reviews for the price of one.  Over the course of a year, my wife and I taste drive a lot of different wines day after day searching for ones that we think taste great and offer consumers like you and us outstanding value.  Unfortunately, in our pursuit of trying to discover these diamonds in the rough you might say that some days are well…better than others.  So I thought that it would be a good idea to occasionally spare both you and me the hassle of going through a lengthy review about a particular wine that we find to be so mediocre and hum-drum that it would be a sin to bother wasting precious time discussing it.  The central idea in these occasional reviews is just to tell you, “Hey this wine is fine, but you should do yourself a favor and pick something else instead.”

The 2007 Root: 1 Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Colchagua Valley in Chile that we recently tasted totally fit the bill perfectly.  The $10.99 price tag that both of these wines carry hits the sweet zone for most red wine shoppers and the packaging is absolutely gorgeous and stunning.  But, that’s where the buck stops for these Chilean reds.  Once you’re done drooling over these bottles, sooner or later you’ll have to open them up.  Once you do, you’ll be greeted with a pedestrian targeted bland combination of dark fruit and spices that will have you scratching your head wondering how such an enticing looking bottle of wine could yield such an ok, mediocre, and hum-drum forgettable tasting wine.

The 2007 Carmenere in this particular case goes through a pretty complex fermentation process that starts out with spending time in stainless steel and then ends with a 10 month vacation in American oak.  On the other hand, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon is actually a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Syrah.

If you visit the Root:1 website, the winemaker’s notes on both of these wines really sound very compelling and enticing.

“Tasting Notes: Root: 1 Carmenere is a deep red color with gentle tannins and rich flavors of plum, blackberry and spice.
Food Pairings: Root: 1 Carmenere pairs well with pasta, vegetable soup, spicy entrees and grilled meats. Its unique character pairs perfectly with ingredients that are difficult to match such as garlic, bell peppers, fresh herbs and eggplant.”

Checkout the Cabernet Sauvignon:

“Tasting Notes: A rich red wine with black currant, mocha and chocolate notes.
Food Pairings: Root: 1 Cabernet Sauvignon is an exceptional match with full-flavored cheeses, pasta with red sauce, steak, ribs, and chocolate.”

 

Sounds great right?  Well, we threw our favorite chopped eggplant salad and a giant meat lover’s pizza at both of these wines based on the food pairing notes and both of them came up a little short of meeting our “taste spectations”.  Both wines left us a bit bored and bummed out. 

I award both the 2007 Root: 1 Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon each a C+ on taste alone, which equates to a 2 star rating in our house, and an A+ for its original and stunning label.  In both cases, the dark fruit, spices and vanilla flavors were much too soft and came up short of convincing us that either wine was worth buying again.  

WineLife365 Ratings: 2-Star

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2007 Santa Rita 120 Merlot

Origin: Chile

Price: $7.49

Value, value, value is the best way to describe this inexpensive Chilean Merlot.  We were having a barbecue and wanted an inexpensive wine to have with some juicy burgers and grilled chicken.  Fresh berry flavors popped with a solid dose of herbal and vanilla-oak flavors, making this versatile Merlot a steal for an everyday red wine.

This Merlot is a great choice to have with grilled burgers, your favorite red sauce pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, or even tacos.

I award the 2007 Santa Rita 120 Merlot 3 stars out of 4.  It doesn’t get much better than this when it comes to Merlot at this price level.

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From: Chile

Price: $10.99

I recently finished reading the June 2009 issue of Wine & Spirits Magazine naming their “100 Top Values of the Year”.  I was shocked to see that the 2007 Tamaya Reserve Syrah made this list as one of their “top values”.

W&S magazine had this to say about the 2007 Tamaya Reserve Syrah:

With intriguing notes of incense over cherry and blackberry flavors, this is a muscle syrah with enough acidity to keep it fresh and balanced.  Serve with rabbit stew.” (90pts out of 100pts)

Say what??  Where the hell do these guys come up with this stuff?  I don’t know anyone other than one person who sits around making “wabbit stew”.

Honestly people, in my opinion the folks at Wine & Spirits just got a little too carried away and maybe a tad tipsy when they reviewed this rather mediocre Syrah – I would hardly call this wine good, let alone agree with giving it 90 points!

Here’s my own assessment of this Chilean Syrah:

With a bland and boring display of diet cherry cola flavors, this watered down red wine is so wimpy that it couldn’t stand up to a piece of lightly seasoned grilled chicken breast. After only one glass, I realized that I had just wasted $11 bucks.

I give the 2007 Tamaya Reserve Syrah 2 Stars out of 4.  I didn’t care for it, but the person who reviewed it at Wine & Spirits Magazine did – so you might too…especially if you like Rabbit Stew! 

WineLife365 Rating: 2-Star

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From: Chile

Price: $7.99 (1.5L)

After recently having a wonderful tasting experience with the “Frontera” Cab/Merlot, I thought that it was time to try another red wine from the affordable Concha Y Toro lineup.  In my review of the 2008 Cab/Merlot Frontera, I said that this wine blew me away for what worked out to be less than $4 per 750ml.  I found the Frontera Cab/Merlot to be very good and a real recession-buster wine.  So with this past tasting experience in the back of my mind, I was really hoping that lightning would strike again with this 2008 Concha Y Toro Carmenere that was also priced at $7.99 for a 1.5 liter bottle.

Unfortunately, this red wine from the folks at Concha Y Toro came up a little short for me.  It’s not a bad wine in the least:  It has a terrific light to medium raspberry flavor with some soft spices that I found to be very enjoyable.  However, I found it to lack some of the intense Carmenere flavors found in competitors costing a few dollars more.  Because this Chilean Carmenere was so light and simple tasting and it did little to get my attention, I have to give it 2 stars.

WineLife365 Rating: 2-Star

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