2004 Morende Terrarum Carmenere

[dananne]

(Chile)

It's a matter of time and patience. I will spend the time to pay attention to vintages for Oregon Pinot Noir, for the S. Rhone, Rioja, etc., but I'm not going to go out of my way to find out about how recent Carmenere vintages in Chile have gone, nor am I likely to keep it at the front of my mind for the next time I'm buying a $9 weekly quaffer. So, I tend to stay with reliable producers, and this Morende bottle has been a very nice QPR weekly wine for the past few years. However, this time not paying attention may have bitten me. I still have no idea whether the '04 Carmenere vintage was good or bad, nor am I likely to go searching to find out, but this wine was IMHO underripe, with strong herbal, vegetal aromas and flavors. I know that the grape is very late-ripening, so that's my guess about what happened to it. Not good at all, so I've got a small hole in the "daily drinker" department.