Chilean Copy

Tonight's wine is a blend not normally seen from South America, but a blend more often seen emanating from around the world in Australia. But, my goodness, they do a good job!! The Carmen, Reserve, Syrah-Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 is black in the glass with pungent cassis wafting out of the glass (the Koko factor: "smells like good wine"). Full bodied, chewy, blackberry-blueberry with hints of dark chocolate this one goes on and on. And it gets better as it airs out a little. It's only fault is that it misses the complexity of new oak integration but this is a minor quibble given it's $20 price point. Wow. Buy it all. Another thing I like - no fancy marketing on this one - a traditional label fronting a solid, honest wine. Take that, California and it's Joe Blow crappy plonk.
The Carmen wasn't the wine of the week, however - last night's Condada de Haza 2004 beat it out but I'll describe what we thought of that when we do a vertical of this soon. Who's in??
Cheers!!