Wine-O-Rama

Upscale Chilean Cab Not Much Different Than Jr.

We found this “Reserve” cab at Sam’s Club yesterday and hamburgers on the grill tonight seemed appropriate for a swirl. We liked their Veo Grande (especially for $8.99 at Sam’s) but at times the herbal/green pepper interfered a tad. We figured that their ULTIMA reserve version (for $12.99) would be much better. Well, we decanted it for about 45 minutes with vigorous aeration as recommended on the label (it was rough straight out of the bottle.) Pretty purple hue but lots of herbs on the nose (I know some might love that, but we aren’t big fans.) Nice, smooth tannins with very bright red berry on the palate (not much herbal, though.) What zippy acidity - nice with the burgers and probably nicer with a juicy steak. On the other hand, it seemed quite thin and watery. Pretty good hooch, but (in our humble opinions) not worth the extra 4 bucks (and the extra hard work in the vineyards hand picking individual bunches of grapes for the mere 4000 cases of this made.) Good, but we’ll stick to the Veo Grande version a few times a year. We missed the richness and complexity of our favorite value to midpriced cabs ($10-$15) mainly from California.

Grade: B-

Chile Today; Hot Tamale

$8.99 at Sam’s Club.  Bought two more bottles.  Had Homemade steak fajitas tonight.  Marjorie put in TOOOOOO much heat this time!  The Veo Grande was still pretty good.  By itself, very good for the price. Nice, pure red fruit, mild tannins, with licorice.  After about an hour of “air time” we got some zippy acidity and some rhubarb (almost like an assertive pinot noir.)  We have another bottle left that we’ll try with something different.  Per Marjorie, this was better with the after dinner brownies!  Here’s our previous review.

Rating:  8 out of 10

Tasty Cab From Chile

Those wacky guys at Sam’s Club… They seemed to find a great cab value from the Colchagua Valley, and stick it in the corner for no one to see. ‘Cept me. Looked interesting and was cheap, so I’m in. I really can’t recall how much this bottle cost - I figure it had to be below $10 or I wouldn’t have taken a gamble on it. Yep, $8 - $10, I bet. Tonight we had homemade beef tacos. Hmmm, what a toughie. “Gee, why not try the new kid,” I uttered. It paired passably with the tacos (which is no small miracle in itself.) Bright red berry with a touch of red licorice on the nose, with bright red berry, mint and a hefty (but welcome) dose of acidity on the palate. The tannins are soft and smooth (I let it breathe for about 20 minutes.) Hey, this stuff is very good. Not the most complex cab we’ve tried, but its friendly approachability, structure and richness (yet still light-tasting) more than makes up for it. Marjorie seemed to like it, to boot. If Sam’s still has some in stock on our next visit, we’ll definitely get more.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10