WTN: Top Chile 2001 blind plus a few others

Notes from dinner at Jojo's shop, Premium Wine Exchange, featuring a blind tasting of 3 top 2001 Chilean wines: Almaviva, Don Melchor and Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta. There were a few other wines as well.

Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc 2003 - Very slightly smoky nose. Gentle. Ripe sweet fruit. Slightly bitter finish. Not bad but drink up.

Caymus Conundrum 2001 - Slight petrolly nose. Everyone said it smelled like a Riesling. This also had a late harvest character to the nose. Gentle. Oranges. Long finish. Still good but best to drink up.

Montes Alpha Pinot Noir 2006 - First vintage of this wine. I tried this after the bottle had been open for two hours. Deep, deep nose. Dark berries, tar. Very ripe, deep flavor. Soft, spicy. Chocolate covered coffee beans, toffee. Complex but not integrated. Good to drink now. I enjoyed it but I wouldn't have guessed this as Pinot Noir if served blind.

Now the blind tasting. All wines decanted nearly two hours:

A. Slightly earthy. A little hot. Very dark, ripe, plummy. There was a slight stink which, oddly, seemed to come and go. My number 3, group number 2. Almaviva 2001.

B. Rather subdued nose. Very Bordeaux flavor. Ripe fruit but less concentrated than wine A. My number 2, group number 3. Concha y Toro Don Melchor 2001.

C. Quite dry. Ripe fruit. Deep flavor. Very long. Spicy. Coffee. While it started out with a rather subdued nose, over time it developed very complex nuances of mint and tea. Earthy as well. My number 1, group number 1. Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta 2001. While the other two wines were mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, this was mostly Carmenere.

We had another red after the blind tasting then some dessert wines:

Chateau Lascombes 2001 - Smells like a drugstore. Band aids. Antiseptic. Still a bit tannic. Better to age it another year or so. Leathery. Developed a slight stink in the glass after a bit.

Huet Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux 2003 - Peachy, light, grape skins. Unfortunately, killed by the excellent rum cake.

Chateau Rieussec 2003 - A much better match with the cake. Very forward. Burnt sugar, orange, marmalade. Soft, very sweet. Excellent now.

Jay, thanks for the interesting write-up.

I read your notes on the 2001 Clos Apalta with particular interest, as I also had this wine served blind to me about 3 months back. My note echoes your experience quite closely--with a subdued nose that eventually shows some earth/mint/tea-like notes and a dry but deeply luxuriant texture in the mouth:

2001 Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta (Chile, Central Valley, Rapel Valley, Colchagua Valley). The nose needs a lot of air, but after a while it offers up a very distinct green pepper note to go with cool, almost aloof aromas of black currants, black beans, forest greens and a hint of sweet earth way underneath. It is medium-bodied and taut, but still luxuriant-textured on the palate. It has fine, dark fruit in a dry and somewhat linear package, with just the beginnings of some layering starting to show, and it finishes up with some dusty crushed lava sort of notes. This seems to be showing pretty young.

-Michael