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On a recent crisp, spring afternoon I met Jess in her sunny apartment to hunker down and taste the latest wine shipment from Gourmet Monthly Wine Club (read more reviews at WineClubReviews.net).

Jess opened the box and set three bottles on the coffee table: A 2008 Carmen Rapel Valley Carmenere, a 2008 Bodegas Gormaz Vina Gormaz Rueda, from Chile and Spain, respectively; and a 2005 Surfrider Red (Bordeaux blend/Meritage) from Rosenthal Estate Wines in Malibu. But that’s pretty much all there is to say about that one.

2008 Carmen Carmenere

I’ve written before about the Carmen Carmenere. It had a nose full of pepper and jam and a taste of lead pipe and salad. I wish I could speak more favorably, but – try as I might – I just couldn’t bring myself to like this wine. Jess thought it was ok. She got the green pepper essence I kept complaining about but she didn’t hate it as much as I did. So…there’s that…ringing…endorsement.

The Rueda was good. It had a lovely, lovely aroma like muscadel (maybe?), peach and ripe grapefruit with undertones of lime. On the palette I picked up flowers and grapefruit, although I felt the wine was a little flabby. But good. It was flabby but grapefruity deliciousness, with a nice balance and mouthfeel.

But here’s the thing: The Gourmet Monthly Wine Club tasting notes say that Carmen is “Chile’s oldest wine brand,” and “South America’s leading winery as well as its oldest.” Which makes me wonder, once again, if I need to find a different job. Apparently Wine & Spirits named Carmen “Top Winery of the Year” at least four times (according to the literature), and, I don’t know, I guess I was supposed to really like this juice. I will say this: Even though I didn’t love the wine, clearly there was a lot of thought that went into choosing it for the club.

Bodegas Gormaz Vina Gormaz Rueda

Rueda is actually a Denominación de Origen (DO) in Spain, for the wines from the Community of Castile and Leon, located northwest of Madrid. The Verdejo grape has been grown in this region since the 11th Century, and is now one of Spain’s most successful white grape varieties. In order to be labeled Rueda, a wine must contain 50% Verdejo, with the rest typically consisting of either Sauvignon Blanc or Viura – as in the Bodegas Gormaz Vina, which is 60% Verdejo and 40% Viura. Interesting stuff, and the Vina Gormaz was a good wine for introduction.

I have to admit that this was not my favorite overall shipment, but I don’t believe it was for lack of quality in the wine. And, truthfully, sometimes we all pick up bottles of otherwise highly rated and glowingly reviewed wine that just doesn’t please our palate. I think that’s what happened here. In vino veritas…

If I have ever represented myself as anything other than a neophyte in this overwhelming world of fermented fruit juice – my bad. Let me assure you that I know I have a lot to learn.

Carmen sings the blues

For example, before my last Gourmet Monthly Wine Club arrival, I had never had Carmenere. One of the bottles in the shipment was a 2008 Carmen Rapel Valley Carmenere from Chile. Excitement! A great opportunity to expand my horizons! Jess poured our glasses. We got comfortable and prepped ourselves for delving deeply into this new experience.

And.

Ummm.

Well.

Here’s the thing: If you like licking lead pipes, you’re going to totally love the metallic notes in this wine. It’s big and jammy, so that might appeal to some. Anyone out there that has ever considered joining a facebook fan page in praise of green peppers is going to be oh-so-happy. Ecstatic, even. I referred to this wine as “salad in a bottle,” after my first sip, so that should get a whole bunch of salad drinking party people really stoked.

Oh, sweet mercy.

…just not my thing.

But what do I know, right? This was my first experience with Carmenere. Could be that the 08 Carmen is the gold standard and I just didn’t have the good sense to know better.

It happens.

So when I visited my family in North Carolina a few weeks later, my sister-in-law took me to West End Wine Bar and I decided to do more research. And eat some olives. Because, man, I love me some olives.

But I digress.

PKNT. BYOB!

I ordered a glass of 2008 PKNT “Silver Collection” Carmenere. The PKNT (pronounced “picante“) is also from Rapel Valley, Chile. And this time I loved the varietal. Black pepper and dark berries on the nose and palette. So delicious – and I’m generally not a huge fan of very peppery wines. Really, really enjoyed this one, though.

Good Carma?

But when I returned to the Land of LaLa and attended a benefit to help Chile (and its devastated wine industry) at Pourtal Wine Bar, I again had a hard time enjoying this Bordeaux export that has since become a Chilean trademark. The 2008 Carma Carmenere from the Colchagua Valley was all tobacco and chocolate, purple berries and pepper. Not tastes I dislike in wine, but I definitely disliked them in this wine. I couldn’t even finish my glass.

The thing is, though, that a quick Google search of “2008 Carma Carmenere” returns, like, a billion reviews (okay, more like 1,720 entries) – mostly positive – about this stuff. Wine writers, bloggers and merchants the world over all seem to think it’s unquestionably, quaffably, yum.

Which brings me, full circle, back to where I began:

1. I have no pretenses, whatsoever, about knowing, really, anything at all

2. Over the course of this little journey, I tried three very different Carmenere wines, two of which did not taste like green peppers and one of which did. I have it on the highest, cross-referenced and researched authority (albeit lacking a large test sample) that Carmenere should not taste like salad

The great thing about this varietal is that you can find well-reviewed Carmenere for well under $20. So don’t take my word for it – give it a try. Carmenere is hugely popular right now, and Chile really needs the business. Then please share your comments! I’d love to get other opinions and see what the rest of the world drinks and thinks.

Gourmet Monthly Wine Club, Premier Series, December Shipment

WineClubReviews is not a name we chose by accident. It is our mission to personally sample and review each club, in order to bring you real reviews. This way we can provide you with the best information for making a personal, informed decision about the best wine club to meet your imbibing interests!

Wine Club Shipment Review

Gourmet Monthly Wine Club

We received a Gourmet Monthly Wine Club Premier Series shipment, at a cost of around $29.95 (plus shipping and handling). Inside were both a white and a red; for the price, Jessyca and I both felt they were both worth every penny. You can also catch our Gourmet Monthly Wine Club Review (Premier Series) at WineClubReviews.net.

I wrote about the white wine in my recent post, Orvieto, Vinho Verde and Pinot Blanc – Oh Dear… The wine in the Gourmet Monthly Wine Club shipment was the Orvieto part of that piece. Specifically, 2008 Palazzone Umbria Dubini Bianco , which is an Orvieto from Orvieto DOC, located near Umbria and Lazio, in Italy.

Palazzone Dubini Bianco - definitely delicious

When Jess first poured our glasses, the wine was right out of the refrigerator. Yes, refrigerator. At least for now, we’re still regular, everyday folk, and don’t have special cellars kept at specific wine-friendly temperatures. But the reason for special cellars kept at specific wine-friendly temperatures is that wine really does work better when it’s served the way it wants to be. Refrigerators are too cold. As a result, our first impression of the Palazzone Umbria Dubini Bianco was that it was rather bland; the taste had been chilled right out of it.

As the wine warmed a little, it really opened up. The bouquet unfolded with ripe peach and pineapple and a touch of hay. Flavors of apple and stone fruit and honey revealed themselves as if waking up from hibernation. Another interesting thing that happened was the sweetness that hit me over the head on my first sip was soon rounded out with more acid and a satisfying structure that took all but the tiniest hint of sweet away.

The red part of this program was a 2007 Emilio Moro Finca Resalso Ribera del Duero.  From Australia. Ha!

Tinto Fino, fine for the price

OK, obviously from Spain (That was just a little bit of wine humor. OK, sorry. I’ll just get back to my review now…).

In fact, the family-run winery of Bodegas Emilio Moro is located in the Rioja region of Spain, and – typical to the area – their Tinto Fino is a special clone of Tempranillo grapes (for more Tempranillo goodness, you might want to also check out my review of Campo Viejo Crianza).

Tempranillo is sometimes described as juicy raspberry, perfume-y, dry earthy…and…leather. This Tempranillo I found to have a nose of oak and mineral, a bit of heavy-handed alcohol and a lovely smell and taste of black cherry. It bowled me over with tannins at first, but the more it breathed, unsurprisingly, the better it got. I also thought that this wine would be well served by decanting. It will certainly stand up to cellaring for 3 – 5 years.

As reviewed by Wine & Spirits Magazine on 10/09: Rating: 88/100 – Made from young tempranillo vines (from five to 15 years old), this wine offers simple, refreshing red flavors on a large scale. Serve it with chorizo.

I didn’t love this wine, but I did love the Palazzone Umbria Dubini Bianco. And there is something I should add about the price: For awhile Jess and I thought this shipment was priced at $45.95, and at that cost we were both deeply unsatisfied. However, once we learned that the shipment was closer to $30, everything changed. In fact, these wines seemed perfectly priced at around $15 each. Despite not being a huge fan of the Emilio Moro Finca Resalso Ribera del Duero, I feel I still got my money’s worth.

Even better about the Gourmet Monthly Wine Club: Each shipment can be mixed and matched to include wine or beer, cheese, chocolate, premium cigars or fresh cut flowers. That, alone, is worth the price of admission.

For about a year now, I’ve been a happy member of Fiddlehead Winery’s Frequent Fiddle wine club. I joined the club after visiting 20 or so wineries and tasting rooms in the Santa Ynez Valley area… a favorite spot of mine.

After a full day of tasting at some great wineries, and some not-so-great wineries, we landed in the wine-ghetto of Lompoc, CA to find out if Fiddlehead was as good as its reputation. It was. And having tasted a lot of wine in the area, this was the first winery that had a wine club I wanted to join (and my husband Mitch agreed!).

Truth be told, I’m still a happy member, except that when my newest shipment arrived, it was no longer an exciting adventure. I’d already tried (and drank three bottles each of) both the Goosebury (Goosie) Sauvignon Blanc from Santa Rita Hills and the Oldsville Reserve Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley (pronounced Will-amm-it, dammit). I like both of these wines very much, and feel they’re a good value, but there are hundreds (maybe thousands?) of wineries in California alone and I have more wine adventures to partake of!

So now I’m going to figure out which wine club to join next, and if you’ll let me, I’ll take you along on the adventure. Hopefully you’ll be inspired to find the perfect wine club (and wines) for yourself!

If you want to try Fiddlehead, you can find places to buy it online.