Tasting At The Office.
Ok, I don’t really have a corkscrew standing up on my desk; but it is sitting in the top drawer… And this last Friday, around four o’ clock, we decided to open a bottle and have a little office tasting to finish off the week…
I stopped to pick up a bottle on the way into work (the rule was under $20), and I decided on a Chilean Carmenere, which seems to be a popular choice in the under-twenty-dollar category. The 2007 Undurraga Sibaris Reserva Carmenere got the nod, and I had it in a decanter on the desk across from me for a good hour before we poured (yes, I have a decanter in my office).
Four of us sat around the desk, glasses in hand, to give this bottle a try. The wine was a nice, dark magenta color and we all watched as it was poured into each glass.
Worth noting that this wine is 100% Carmenere grapes grown in Chile’s Colchauga Valley.
As we all started sniffing our glasses, the debate quickly began. I noted that I sensed a strong pepper aroma on the nose, and someone else disagreed, saying it was more of a green pepper/bell pepper. A third member of the panel thought it was more menthol… Three tasters and three completely different opinions (and the wine hadn’t even made it to our mouths yet!)
Once it did, we all agreed that the wine had a medium acidity and medium tannins. But the harmony was short lived.
I got the pepper thing again on the palette and announced it to the group. My co-worker thought it was more of a green pepper/bell pepper, and another co-worker shook his head, saying it was more ’spice box’. I likened the wine to a grenache, my co-worker disagreed and thought it was more like a malbec and cabernet franc came up as a possible comparison from taster #3.
At the end of the day, we didn’t see eye to eye on much. But before you knew it, the decanter was empty, and everyone did agree that Friday afternoon tastings could be a good way to finish off the work week. And this little bottle of Chilean Carmenere was the bottle that started what I hope will become a weekly event at my desk…
