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So this is the selection of Chilean wine at my LCBO:
I think you can click on them to embiggen. Sorry about the blurriness of the lower shelf photo, for some reason the damn phone wouldn't focus.
For those two readers from that part of the world, please tell me: what's worth drinking here?
Really thin selection, to be honest. At a pinch I'd go for the Casillero del Diablo. It used to be better than it is now, these days it's a decent enough world wine. Pretty distinctive though, drinks more like an Oz than a Chilean. It drinks "big" and it's value for money, I'll give it that.
ReplyDelete"Drinks more like an Oz" gives me so many opportunities. But instead I'll just ctrl-v this:
Delete"A lot of people in this country pooh-pooh Australian table wines. This is a pity as many fine Australian wines appeal not only to the Australian palate but also to the cognoscenti of Great Britain.
"Black Stump Bordeaux is rightly praised as a peppermint flavoured Burgundy, whilst a good Sydney Syrup can rank with any of the world's best sugary wines.
"Château Blue, too, has won many prizes; not least for its taste, and its lingering afterburn.
"Old Smokey 1968 has been compared favourably to a Welsh claret, whilst the Australian Wino Society thoroughly recommends a 1970 Coq du Rod Laver, which, believe me, has a kick on it like a mule: eight bottles of this and you're really finished. At the opening of the Sydney Bridge Club, they were fishing them out of the main sewers every half an hour.
"Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Perth Pink. This is a bottle with a message in, and the message is 'beware'. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.
"Another good fighting wine is Melbourne Old-and-Yellow, which is particularly heavy and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat.
"Quite the reverse is true of Château Chunder, which is an appellation contrôlée, specially grown for those keen on regurgitation; a fine wine which really opens up the sluices at both ends.
"Real emetic fans will also go for a Hobart Muddy, and a prize winning Cuivre Reserve Château Bottled Nuit San Wogga Wogga, which has a bouquet like an aborigine's armpit."
But srsly though, I picked up the Santa Alicia Reserva, the one on the bottom shelf to the right of the Caliterra.
DeleteIt didn't impress me at all, but I mainly buy Cote du Rhone and Valpolicella.
That's one of my favourite Eric Idle voices. It's famed to the point that "This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding" is a standard phrase on opening a 2nd bottle in any evening.
ReplyDeleteNothing says 'call the police' like Val police lla.
Agreed on the Santa Alicia, been fooled by the expensive looking heavy bottle on that one before. If that's all the S.Am you are offered up there I'd look to other places, but if you get into tracking down Chileans then two that are probably available somewhere in larger cities of discernment are Errazuriz and Cousiño Macul. Consistently good bodegas, no matter what grape or price standard.
Though in the end I prefer Argy wines to Chileans (because I know more about them, basically).
I'm enjoying a 2010 Calina carmenere tonight, very smooth.
ReplyDeleteIf you like your Rhones then do try and get your hands on a 2009 Rasteau, doesnt matter what producer as they are very good across the board. Once upon a time we were getting our hands on a Cab Sav from Argentina called Landelia - serious bang for your buck with that one if you can find it. Hard to find a good Chilean vino on the shelf here in the UK as its mostly cheap end like your selection but producers that stand out (if you can find them) are Lapostolle, Vina Santa Rita and Haras de Pirque.
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