RED WINES: CHILE

Apaltagua Reserva Pinot Noir
Chile: Curico Valley (Tricao)
100% Pinot Noir
2011
$12.00
85 pts
The Apaltagua Pinot is a fair, acceptable wine at a quite reasonable price. But while there's nothing particularly offensive about this wine, it lacks everything I enjoy in a good Pinot Noir. No chocolate, no hint of earth, no lush mouth feel, and, unlike in a choice Pinot for my palate, the cherry fruit in the Apaltagua is too far in front, and too candy-like, and the beginning, middle and end of this wine, which lacks even a minimal level of complexity. It's not fair to say the wine is disjointed, though, largely because to be disjointed a wine needs more than one limb, something for the fruit to connect with. Also not much of a length to speak of. I was hoping for one of those great bargain Chilean reds that walks the line between Old and New World with balance and poise, but didn't find it here. 

Castillo de Molina Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva (from Vina San Pedro)
Chile: Curico Valley (Central Valley)
90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Syrah (red)
2008
$10.99
84 pts
While Chilean Cab is now on fire, the Vina San Pedro fails to inspire...much of anything, really. Violet in the glass, the nose is a tight one, with some some oak and vanilla. The weight is light, and the taste profile includes the aforementioned vanilla, black pepper, spice, dark red fruit (mostly raspberries), and earthy mushrooms. While there's a pleasing (for my palette) dryness on the back end, and the finish (mocha) is good, the length is average at best and the transitions between flavors lack coherence. I want to like this wine more--certainly features multiple flavors--but don't. Reminds me of taking a piece of choocolate candy from a big box (Whitman's?) as a kid, and biting into it expecting something delicious...but then experiencing a disjointed chocolate, fruit and spice mix that just didn't do it for me. Not the worst Cab ever made, mind you, especially at about eleven bucks. But by no means a wine to seek out.

+MUST TRY+
Santa Rita Medalla Real Cabernet Sauvignon
Chile: Maipo Valley (Central Valley)
93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc (red)
2006
$19.99
90 pts
Chile is sure hot for well-priced, high quality cabs, and the Santa Rita Medalla Real is a great example. For twenty bucks one can enjoy a quality that blows away a fair number of California cabs at twice the price. The nose on this one is an exact replica of red raspberry preserves, causing me to crave peanut butter, having lived on peanut butter & raspberry jam on toast for breakfast through my childhood. The taste profile is multifaceted, starting out with red fruit, transitioning smoothly to green vegetables, and then finishing with coffee. There's also an underlying spice just beneath the surface. The length? To me, this is a weakness on this wine, just average at best. I also think the coffee finish could be richer, deeper, fuller...while it's good, it leaves me just a bit unsatisfied. However, overall this is a wonderful Cabernet, not over-oaked (aged in French barrels), tasty as hell, and very nicely priced for a varietal very much in demand. While Wine Spectator gives this one 91 points, because of the length and my desire for a richer coffee flavor, I'm going with 90. But in the end, that doesn't matter. This is a great Cabernet, making Chile proud--and sending me running for that jar of peanut butter!

RED WINES: ARGENTINA

Ricominciare Malbec - Cabernet Franc
Argentina: Mendoza (Valle de Uco)
Malbec 60%, Cabernet Franc 40% (red)
2009
$12.99
88 points
Raspberry, cassis, maybe a hint of anise and an herbal finish on this Malbec-Cab Franc blend from the Land of Leo. This is a fairly well-balanced wine with a nice mouth feel (bit of velvet on the gums) and a deep, dark violet color in the glass. At $12.99 it's a fine wine, an excellent bargain...but in the final analysis, a fading mid-palette and an underwhelming length keep this one from being a +MUST BUY+. Nose offers deep plum and some soft pepper. Worth having in the line-up, no question, but it's Dani Alves, not Lionel Messi. A solid wine, even more so when options are limited, but by no means a super-star. As for a pairing? Just BEGS for chocolate! Available at Binny's in Chicago.

Bodegas Nieto Senetiner Pinot NoirArgentina: Mendoza
Pinot Noir 100% (red)
2009
$11.99
86 points
Had a few glasses of this Argentinian Pinot at Dunlays on Clark last Thursday evening--our buddy Wes was in, visiting from Zurich--and while this medium, rather gentle wine worked well with my fried calamari and cocktail sauce, it's nothing to get excited about by its lonesome. The rich ruby color is beautiful in the glass, and the nose offers some dark red cherry. And while the mouth feel is decent, the taste profile is a one-for-three hitter, striking out on the initial attack (a slow starting wine, with a weak opening...waiting for fruit...waiting...waiting...). The mid-palette is only slightly better, with cherries coming through, and maybe plums, too, but nothing spectacular....let's call it a hard grounder deep in the hole, fielded by the shortstop, throwing out the runner in a bang-bang play at first. It isn't until the finish that this wine reaches base safely, a unique steely, metallic, mineral finish, which I find both interesting and refreshing. As the wine opened up, just a hint of barnyard crept in, too. The length is, perhaps, just a hair above average. Overall, by no means a lousy wine...just average. For twelve bucks the Nieto Pinot Noir is worthwhile when faced with really poor options at the 7-11 or drug store, but otherwise, I think you can do better.

Tilia Malbec (by Bodegas Esmeralda)
Argentina: Mendoza
Malbec 100% (red)
2009
$8.99
85+ points
Tilia is the Latin word for Linden, and this Argentinian Malbec is named Tilia in honor of the native Linden trees of the Mendoza region, in eastern Argentina, in the foothills of the Andes. Had three glasses of Tilia at Dunlays on Clark on burger night with Dane, Joanna & Marshall last night (Wednesdays, $5.00 burgers and fries, great deal), and since that clearly makes me an expert on this wine, let me start with the positive qualities of the Tilia Malbec. The Tilia offers wonderful up-front black fruit on the palette (black berry), an initial attack that is rich, smooth and delightful. And it follows with a bit of spice (white pepper comes to mind), before closing shop for the day with just a hint of vanilla and some toasty oak (by no means over-the-top oak, either). In addition, this wine, while roughly $8.00 a glass in restaurants, retails for an average of about $8.99 per bottle in stores. As good as all of this may sound, there are some real challenges here, too, challenges that keep this wine (which, it seems to me, really aspires to be something cool) from reaching its full potential. First, that pleasing fruit attack passes like a high-speed train: in your face one second and long-gone the next. Second, there is no transition at all between the initial blast of fruit and the secondary flavors of spice, vanilla and toast: this is a wine with a great beginning, an okay middle (even if it seems disjointed from the opening), and NO finish…along with almost no length. It just vanishes, almost instantly, after the quick mid-palette. This wine reminds me of a promising young pitcher who has a great spring training but then gets rocked in "The Show" come April, and is quickly sent back down. Bodegas Esmeralda certainly has something to offer based on this wine, but like that kid riding the team bus to Grand Rapids at midnight, it’s just not ready for the Bigs. The Tilia is a serviceable wine, but has some serious holes in its game. It's okay when your working with a short bench and have few viable options, but not a player you get excited about penciling into your wine lineup.

PINOT NOIR: UNITED STATES

+RUN AWAY NOW+
Plowbuster Pinot Noir
United States: Oregon (Willamette Valley)
Pinot Noir (red)
2009
$19.99
75 pts
I'm a big Willamette Valley Pinot fan...as is Scott. Clearly, we're not alone. This region and its thoughtful vintners nearly always deliver a solid Pinot Noir, one of the most difficult wines to produce, given the fragile, temperamental nature of these thin-skinned grapes. But the 2009 Plowbuster is not a wine I can recommend, particularly at twenty bucks a bottle. The best thing this wine has going for it is the pretty ruby color. The nose is stingy, perhaps revealing the tiniest whiff of black cherry, but it's awfully tight. The taste profile includes the aforementioned cherries on the mid-palette, followed by an unusual metallic minerality that has good length, but overpowers all, and just doesn't taste good to me. There is no initial attack on this wine at all. One simply has to wait...and wait...and wait...for the cherries, which then quickly give way to the powerful taste of, perhaps, tin? I find the 2009 Plowbuster disjointed, unbalanced, and distasteful. Perhaps a rough vintage? Wine Spectator gave the 2008 89 points, citing tea as part of its taste profile. I'm not a fan of tea, so maybe that's part of my dislike. I've read the winemaker says this particular plot of land is littered with bits of steel from plows that have worked the fields over the years. Interesting, but even if that accounts for the steely taste, that's more of a good story than a good plan to make wine. I say this one's a +RUN AWAY NOW+, and Scott agreed, refusing to drink any more of his own bottle of wine. Good thing we had a little Borsao Spanish red standing by to enjoy on that lovely night in the front yard with Dana & Gail!

NOTE: I rated this wine after a lengthy period of opening up, during which the taste profile seemed to transform from an overly sweet wine to a wine dominated by the steely minerality.

Benton Valley Pinot Noir
United States: Oregon (Willamette Valley: Monroe)
100% Pinot Noir (red)
2008
$18.00
87 pts
This Willamette Valley Pinot (by the way, recently learned locals pronounce Willamette like damn-it...suppose you Oregonians know, but had no clue...thanks, Dana!) offers a measure of cherries and the characteristic cocoa finish, but is awfully light, even for a Pinot. The fruit disappears after a quick hit of cherries, faster than a Republican candidate for President at an immigrant's rights rally. While this wine strikes me as needing another year or two to mature, as it stands now, the best part is the finish, with cocoa and a hint of musty earthiness emerging, and lingering rather pleasingly. Overall, it's a decent Pinot, but not a MUST TRY: just too thin, too lacking in fruit flavor, and without any coherent transition from the initial cherry to the cocoa finish. I'll say this, though: it's light, easy drinking...and it just does NOT go with Mike 'n Ike's candy. Trust me.

+MUST TRY+
Adelsheim Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
United States: Oregon (Willamette Valley: Newberg)
100% Pinot Noir (red)
2009
$22.99
90 pts
The nose on this wonderful northwestern US Pinot offers cherries, raspberries and fresh earth. In the mouth, the initial attack is young cherries with hints of earth underneath, followed by a surprising finish that almost explodes with candied sour cherries. The length? Outstanding! The first word that came to mind when this wine hit my mouth was "elegant"--it's smooth, refined (even at this young age), and confident. My guess is that with more time in the bottle, the youthful cherries on the front end will gain maturity and more sophistication. And perhaps the already rich earthiness will become even more pronounced in a few years. The Adelsheim Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is delicious, balanced and worth the price tag, just over twenty bucks.

Uptown Pinot Noir (by Uptown Cellars)
United States: Califorina (North Coast)
Pinot Noir (red)
2008
$12.00
88 pts
Scott brought this Pinot up to our rooftop deck last weekend for an informal gathering of neighbors from the building, and while I was already drinking Prosecco (and Verdejo, too), this wine was so good upon a taste that I had to have a glass...and he was kind enough to give me the rest of the bottle at the end of the night. Distributed by the Midwest Wine Exchange based in Novi, MI--which claims to specialize in small boutique wines at affordable prices--this is a very nice Pinot Noir at a good price. I find the color unusually dark for a Pinot Noir (dark cherry), but it is beautiful. The kind of wine when you examine the color in the light, you want to drink it. The weight is more typical of the varietal (light), but it has a creamy mouth feel which I like a great deal. As for taste profile, cherries, definitely (and maybe some raspberry notes, too), but on the back end, there is a subtle little hint of cocoa, or of chocolate, that leaves me feeling like I've just had a chocolate-covered cherry in my mouth (not the taste of the chocolate-covered cherry in my mouth per se, but the taste left there after consuming it; it's subtle). There's also a floral bitterness that lingers on the finish, which I'm not really crazy about (doesn't seem in harmony with the rest of the taste profile). But for about twelve bucks, this is a decent Pinot. Not a MUST TRY, but a slightly above average wine for the price, in my opinion--like a .280 hitter with no power and a good glove. Cooperstown won't be calling, but you could do worse than have him bat in the two spot.