WTN + Q: 2002 Hacienda Araucano (Lurton) Carmenère Alka

• 2002 Hacienda Araucano (Lurton) Carmenère Alka - Chile, Central Valley, Rapel Valley, Colchagua Valley (10/13/2007)
  13,5% abv; 42€. Very dark colour. The nose is at first delightfully leafy and shows much elegance. With some time, the fruit became rather full-on and sweet and it showed an almost exaggerated amount of cassis and cranberry. The palate is nicely tannic, moderate in acidity, sweet in fruit. The oak is noticable but is gladly in the background. The aftertaste is a little on the short side, but this still has some interest despite the stereotypical "Chilean" aromatics. Vastly over-priced over here.

Posted from CellarTracker

Why is it that so many Chilean wines have such a prominent and stereotypical note of cassis and cranberries? Is there a yeast that can emphasize these aromatics which is widely used in Chile? This wine is well made and somewhat interesting, but so are many other Chileans. But the reason I personally don't pay much attention to the country's output is that the wines are so similar to each other. What is the reason for this similarity?

-O-

[Jenise]

I can't answer the question about cassis, but Chileans apparently also often have a green note to them. I don't buy them, but friends in Canada who do often rule out Chile in blind tastings when a wine fails to have that green quality.

42 Euros for a carmenere sure sounds like a rip--I've never met a carmenere worth that kind of money.

42 Euros for a carmenere sure sounds like a rip--I've never met a carmenere worth that kind of money.

42€ here would mean that it goes for 25-30€ elsewhere. The bottle is the heavy "look at me I'm important" style of bottle that looks more like a Magnum than a 0,75, so I guess this is an attempt to make a super-Carmenère.