2009 Secreto Carmenere

     A busy day with my daughter yesterday had left me without a dinner plan and with no will to go out. We went into Whole Foods to search for inspiration before heading home. The guy behind the fish counter started chatting us up and offering samples. I ended up purchasing blue-crab stuffed salmon filets. This is the kind of thing that I never buy as I make great seafood stuffing but I was looking for convenience.
     I went to get a carton of milk while my daughter went to check out the beauty supplies. This (inadvertantly) led me through the wine section to get back to her. I got distracted and started looking for a particular Texas Viognier that I had been wanting to try (they were out of it), glanced over the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sections (nothing grabbed me) and ended up looking at the Carmenere section which seemed to have expanded since I had last looked at it.
     My daughter came to find me at this point. She saw the 2009 Secreto de Viu Manent Carmenere and commented on the label and said, "why don't you try that?" This is not how I usually pick wine but I looked at the $10 price and thought, why not.

This wine came from the Colchagua Valley in Chile and is 85% Carmenere and 15% unnamed. It was an opaque purple with a ruby rim. It had medium-intense aromas of cherry, vanilla and cedar with fruit flavors of pomegranite and cherry with some vanilla. It was medium-bodied with medium tannins, 14.5% abv and medium+ acidity. It had a medium length, slightly sour cherry finish. While Carmenere is probably not the varietal I would pick to serve with this meal again (it wasn't bad together, nor was it special), I would try this with a cheeseburger if I had another bottle. A simple wine with a simple dnner.

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