Have you ever heard of the wine grape Carmenere? I hadn't, and that's what drove me to try this. Apparently this grape had been thought extinct and was rediscovered in Chili, so it seems to be only available from Chilean wineries. I was a wee bit disappointed by this one, but the price point of this particular brand is about six dollars so I'm guessing I got what I paid for.Now if I had to choose one word to describe this wine it would be pepper. After letting this wine decant I found the smell to make the ground table pepper obvious. The palate of the wine showed the pepper as well, but also had a tannin aftertaste that didn't complement the wine (sour-tart grape.) The aftertaste simply brought the pepper back, but thankfully not the tannin. I tried another glass along with a serving of pizza with spicy sausage and it was much easier to put down the wine.
After some thought I gave this wine a C (decent). I do recommend this to those who simply want a table wine to compliment a spicy Mexican meal. Due to the unique spice of this grape I plan on trying a different brand that might represent it better.
PKNT
