Predominantly Carmenere, 92%, with 8% Petite Verdot, the Purple Angel was an incredibly bright purple, opaque, wine. Terrific spice on the nose, herbal, including sage, blue and black fruit, and then follow through taste. Medium to full-bodied, nice mouthfeel, balanced tannins, fruit, alcohol is unobtrusive, and all in all a great wine from Chile. Very long, full finish, great fruit for about a minute. I like it a lot. Found at, as per usual, The Wine House in Manlius. Tasted 11/6/2009. Recommended, even at about $50. Wine Advocate gave it a 92. Jay Miller and I do seem to have similar tastes.
Wine: November 2009 Archives
Ribera del Duero is definitely an up and coming region of Spain, which is interesting because it's such an old region - and the Atauta is an exemplar of that. Old vines really means old vines in this part of the world, and on top of that the region was so remote that the vines were unaffected by phylloxera and are ungrafted, 60 to 150 years old tempranillo vines.
It's a deep inky purple, but fairly thin. The nose was very interesting at first, black fruit, coffee, spicy notes, and then it was followed with similar dark fruit, blackberry, black currant flavors. But as rich as the nose was I expected a bit more body. And over a hour or two open much of the nose went away too quickly. At about $30 it was a bit over my preferred budget for Spain - at that price there are other great choices, and this wasn't one I'd buy again. Tasted 11/3/09.
It's a deep inky purple, but fairly thin. The nose was very interesting at first, black fruit, coffee, spicy notes, and then it was followed with similar dark fruit, blackberry, black currant flavors. But as rich as the nose was I expected a bit more body. And over a hour or two open much of the nose went away too quickly. At about $30 it was a bit over my preferred budget for Spain - at that price there are other great choices, and this wasn't one I'd buy again. Tasted 11/3/09.
