Wine of the Week: Veramonte Cabernet Sauvignon

Wine: Veramonte Cabernet Sauvignon

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon (100 percent)

Region: Colchagua Valley, Chile

Vintage: 2013

Price: $7.99 per bottle.

Availability: All Wine & Grocery Stores

In the glass: This Veramonte Cabernet Sauvignon is a very deep blackish red color with an opaque ruby red center going out into a blood red rim definition showing high viscosity.

On the nose: It exudes layers of ripe crushed black fruit with dominance by blackberry, boysenberry, then comes the classic trademark Chilean creme de cassis, black currant foliage, vanillin from oak, creme caramel, minerals and phenolic compounds are all present and blend together well in the scent range.

On the palate: It immediately coats the palate with incredibly powerful black fruit characteristics, followed by tons of cherry and cassis juices, and then ripe firm tannin structure with some degree of alcohol as it comes out a little “hot”. It has an excellent mid-palate with loads of fruit and crushed loganberry and finishes very powerfully with chunks of cherry liqueur and creme de cassis. Great wine that certainly has aging potential based on the fine complexity that it shows, completely transcending what could normally be expected of a Chilean wine in this price category.

Odds and ends: Veramonte is a big wine company that has vineyards in a variety of the different microclimates which define the modern Chilean production map. This Cabernet Sauvignon was produced from the company’s nicely located Marchigue vineyard, which is a rather desolate and normally dry part of the Colchagua appellation as it is located closer to the Pacific Ocean. In many ways, it is quite similar to certain areas in California, except this is 6,000 miles to the south and in some ways a mirror in the Southern Hemisphere of the same area in California. The 2013 vintage was considered one of Chile’s coolest in the past decade, mostly driven by a slow cool growing season, resulting in a late-ripening of the fruit. As a result producers like Veramonte produced elegant wines with vibrant color, fresh fruit aromas, bright acidity and supple tannins. Veramonte always deliver good bang for the buck in their bottles and this is no exception. It does need to open up for around an hour or more before consumption, as it will give it a chance to “burn” off some of the initial alcohol, but then it reveals marvelous concentration and breed. Try it with any lamb – roasted, grilled or oven baked. Drink now through 2018.

Gil Lempert-Schwarz’s wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.