Argentina, Zolo, Mendoza, 2004, Malbec

Name: Zolo
Country: Argentina
Region: Mendoza
Grape(s): Malbec, Red
Vintage: 2004
Colour: Crimson/ruby
Smell: A very pronounced spiciness to this wine – full of cinnamon, gloves, nutmeg. Daddy picked up a touch of petrol!!!! Really lovely aroma – smells like christmas
Taste: The flavour was very berry flavoured, I could taste black berries, cherries – was just lovely. The flavour was very much an off dry flavour with a short length meaning that it the flavour didn’t hang around in the mouth for too long. It had low tannin levels too giving it a lighter body and completely glubable. Very nice indeed.
Food ate with wine: A light cheese fondue. The combination of this light cheese and read wine was really fantastic Conclusion: A great wine.
WINEDEX: 9 out of 10
Final comments: Malbec is clearly one of my favourite grapes in the world. It never lets me down. The spicy/fruity aromas and flavour create a beautiful velvety flavours and lots of movement in the drink. As it sits and the air gets to it I really do think the flavours get better and more intense. I would recommend this bottle and this brand. A great wine. This malbec was 4 years old I would like to try a young malbec and see if there is a contrast and see if age really does made the malbec a better mature drink or a young drink. Watch this space.

Chile - Paso del Sol - Valle Central - Carmenere 2007

This was one of those..."never seen - need to try" bottles. I had never heard of the Carmenere Grape so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Appearance
it has a beautiful deep crimson colour and looks like it could be quite full bodied round flavour.

Nose
It smells not too intense but definately has a number of different aromas going on. I could smell cherries, but at the same time at a very vegetal/spicy flavour. It kind of reminded me of a Cabernet Savgignon variety

Taste
- it was a off dry flavour and felt kind of velvety and smooth in my mouth.
- it had low acidity flavours (it didn't have the sensation of the opal fruit sweets)
- it was low in tannin (it didn't make my mouth feel at all furry)
- I was expecting a rich heavy flavour but infact it was more of a medium flavour
- it didnt have much length but the flavour just didn't disappear so I am going to go with medium cos it did hang around a bit.
- It kind of went through a number of flavours, my first thoughts were cherries, black berries type fruit but as I drunk more the flavour became more spicy sort of black pepper and it was also a bit veggy - I couldn't identify a vegetable so I would say it was quite an earthy flavour....not so bad that you felt you were eating the ground..it was nice.

I had never head this grape variety before but I would buy it again...its very similar to a Cabernet sauvignon but from reading up on it it seems to get mixed up with the merlot variety. I disagree I think its more cabernet savgignon than merlot.

WINDEX: 9 out of 10.

I thoroughly enjoyed this bottle. We had a roast beef dinner with it and it was a good match. roast vegetables really matched well with this Carmenere grape. I would recommend this grape variety for sure and I will be looking out of more of it ..... It wasn't that expensive either. I can't remember the exact price but it was around Dhs. 30 - 40 which is a nice price. So, cant find a cabernet then try this ......its stands on it own and had made a great impression on its first introduction... But once again a fantastic wine from Chile....they are unstoppable this chilean wines...

Want to know more about this grape then visit Carmenere Wine on Wikipedia which talks about it in greater detail. It has French origins but is extinct in France and primarily grown in Chile now.