I also recently purchased some of the 2010 Tierra Salvaje wines from kw.com. I did this to give the winery a second chance after a horrible experience with the 2008 vintages of the carmenere, cab and merlot that I purchased from KW.com in May of 09. It was such a disconcerting experience that I promptly posted a very critical comment of the wines in a thread in which Daniel submited fairly decent scores and TNs for the wines.
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23735I have since heard quite a bit from Mr. welner. I don't know him personally though I'm sure he is a swell guy. That's really beside the point here, however. The question is whether he can make decent mass-produced extremely lost-cost wine. My one experience convinced me that it was not at all ovious that he could. I was, however, impressed by his persistence in his product and his marketing saavy.
So when I was approached by him recently to taste his wines afresh, I took him up on his offer and said that I'd report back. I purchased 4 wines and found 3 of them to be genuinely decent wines that I would recommend as a quaffer to anyone on a budget. I even brought them to a couple of recent board meetings for my synagogue and shared them with my colleagues. Here's what we have to say:
2010 Tierra Salvaje Chardonnay - Perfectly respectable fruity quaffer or summer picnic wine. Rivals the Californian "W" white or even the entry-level Baron Herzog Chard. Nothing astringent or off-putting about it. Not very complex, but nevertheless very easy drinking and tasting, which I think is hitting it right on the mark with the objective of this wine.
2010 Tierra Salvaje Shiraz - Same category of quaffability. It was surprisingly dark and on the full side for an unoaked wine. Spicy, too. But the key, I think, is that there wasn't any off-putting after-taste and it was somewhat interesting for a $5 botle of unoaked wine. So while someone with high expectations may only be able to take a glass of this without disappointment, one whose expectations are set properly could actually really dig this.
2010 Tierra Salvaje Carmenere - Clearly the best of the lot that I purchased. Same impressive body all things considering. Spicy and rather surprisingly deep. If I were on a budget looking for a low cost quaffer this is the one I would stock up on - of course only for near-term drinking.
2010 Cabernet Sauvignon - This, I didn't like. Unlike the others, I found off-putting aromas and flavors, as well as an unpleasant after-taste and astringency. So my own very personal yet honest opinion is that this wine isn't even worth $4.99.
Borowing a line from Dr. Seuss:
Say! I kind of like some of Tierra Salvaje's wines!
I do like them, Mr. Welner-I-am!
And for $4.99, I would drink all but the Cab in a boat!
And I would drink all but the Cab with a goat...
And I would drink same in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
They (except the Cab, IMHO) are so quaffable, you see!
I do so find the quaffability in 3 of the 4 Tierra Salvaje wines I purchased!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Mr. Welner-I-am - for your persistence!
