As usual I like to put my biases right up front. So to date, I have not had what I would call a great Merlot from Chile. And to jump to the end … I still haven’t 🙂 So with that in mind I saw in the raters notes the word plum. Which as I may have mentioned, to me, means this is going to be a varietal Merlot. And low and behold on first tasting there actually is Merlot flavors to the wine! The nose is very mild, I couldn’t really say it smelled like a Merlot. I don’t generally find a need to decant (or age) Merlots. So I tasted this one out of the bottle (an hour early so I could decant if I needed to). The initial mid palette tastes are definitely Merlot. The plums. The finish revealed some spiciness with a bit of pepper. Oak is well under control and not prominent. I would say the finish was medium. This is a moderately complex wine with some nice flavors to it. This by no means is one of the best (or worst) Merlots I have had. I would not be running out to grab a case either. I would say for my tastes the Winespectator number below is high. Personally I would give it an 88. The bottle went quickly and paired ok with a meat Lasagna, but to be honest, the wine did not have enough for it to overcome the lasagna. I appreciated the wine better on it’s own.
From the LCBO web site:
CONCHA Y TORO MARQUES DE CASA CONCHA MERLOT 2006 Peumo Rapel Valley TASTING NOTE: Ripe and polished offering a dark core of plum and black currant fruit layered with warm fig sauce loam and cocoa powder notes with a solid fleshy finish. Drink now through 2010. Score – 90. (James Molesworth www.winespectator.com Nov. 30 2008) 939827 $19.95 Featured 5/23/2009
Check LCBO Stock
