2004
Mendoza, Argentina
"In water one sees one's own face; But in wine, one beholds the heart of another."
An Old Frech proverb
The Guy is back from whence he came for the last three weeks but I am dealing with it OK. The first thing he did when he came home was open the fridge and exclaim: "OMG!! There are six bottles of half-drunk wine in here!!" (As if all I did was drink away my misery because I was so sad he was gone and I was left with the horribleness of peace and quiet and no set schedule and no one to make dinner for and do laundrey for, not to mention picking up the hair on the drain, and the extra toilet bowl scrub, left to prepare my own meals my own way, totalling missing flack and giving flack you know?) I told him he should be happy I left a half bottle - there could be no bottles left in the fridge which would have been totally selfish of me, not to mention an indication of a bigger problem no matter how you look at it. OK, well he did bring back upclose pix of Jon Bon Jovi from the sidelines for the second year in a row.
In this wine's bouquet I first noticed high alcohol which I couldn't get past. It was then followed by olives, earth and maybe blackberry, and a slight hint of bitter chocolate - an awesome combination if it was the right balance. The color was a very dark ruby. The finish was fairly long and not bad, but for me it was more accentuated by dryness and a definite high alcohol taste. Think: I prefer the $18.99 Turkey Flat Rose.
I should comment that I liked the wine better on its own first. Then I had a Mediterranean Salad (with a lot of citrus) and sundried tomato, chicken, roasted red pepper and mushroom pizza, and then another sip and that's when the real dryness and alcohol taste became more pronounced. Interestingly enough, when I doused my pizza in EV olive oil, as I often do, the wine tasted slightly better the next sip.
As our children watched The Guy and I raise, swirl and sniff our glasses, they asked if they could "sniff" too. My five-year-old was first and she thought it smelled "like the Doctor's office" !!! (Maybe a little Isopropyl-y?) My middle child exclaimed it smelled "like banana chocolate chip pancakes without the syrup, and alcohol" (she might just be a future Sommelier) and my eldest said "Yep, alcohol and maybe a little berry-ish" (maybe more an indication of a future drinker). Hard to say if they were or weren't just influenced by our own comments. But it was an interesting and fun scenario anyway.
7 out of 10
14.2% (.2????) alc. by vol.
$11.99 / 750 ml bottle
http://www.carlospulentawines.com/
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