2007 Frontera Carmenere from Chile - $5

This time it's an old varietal from the new world, the carmenere grape. Up until sometime in the 1990's vintners in Chile thought the carmenere grape were merlot and marketed it as such. In the 90's they did some type of DNA testing and found out that it was not merlot but carmenere, which is an old blending grape from France. Really the only place you'll see carmenere bottled on it's own is Chile. This wine is from the Concha Y Toro winery which is owned by the French MoetHennesy conglomerate. The nose of the wine has the classic musty smell going on, I mean that in a good way, carmenere has a very distinctive nose. Musty sounds unpleasant but it is a positive description for this wine. The color is deep rich red and black. This medium bodied dry red is an easy going wine meant to be drunk now. It is soft on the palate and the finish is smooth. I definitely recommend this wine, it could easily be mistaken for a $10 or $12 bottle of wine. Another benefit of this wine is it's wide availability, I bought this at Kroger, it will be easy to find this wine. For simple good quality great value wine check out this bargain.

Enjoy