*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from the PR folks for Wines of Chile.
This past fall the Wines of Chile organization hosted an online Carmenere tasting. Unfortunately, I was just coming off a long illness and wasn’t quite up to tasting through all 12 wines that night. Actually, I only made it through tasting two that night. I put the rest in the basement and am just getting around to tasting through them now. Bubbly has been calling my name lately so I haven’t been drinking as many reds as I usually do. Tonight we uncorked the 2008 Calina Reserva Carmenere. It clocked in at 13.5% alcohol by volume, had a plastic cork, and retails for as low as $8.
Big nose! I got plum, dark chocolate, bramble, green notes, black olive, and herbs. In the mouth I found lots of giant dark fruit, blackberry, plum, black currants, and olives. Like many Carmeneres I’ve tried, this one had big drying tannics and gobs of very dark fruit.
Wannabe Wino Wine Blog 
Chile offers great value! I think my last two posts, both CBS tv segment follow ups, included Chilean wines! I don’t recall the Calina in my WoC sampler, and wonder if it was one I didn’t get. I’ll have to check my notes!
Cheers!
Hey Matt-
Er, it might have come from an earlier shipment. Or it actually could have been something my dad bought…I just assumed it was from that tasting since that was an all Carmenere one. Lol. Things got a little fuzzy for me when I was sick and I wasn’t paying attention to or keeping track of things for that month.
Sonadora-
I actually just tasted and made notes on this exact wine, and am expecting to make my post this Friday. I thought it was a great value and quite delicious and was glad to see your notes on it!!