Maniña Carmenere - 2004

**Unfortunately, no picture can be found of this wine at the time...we'll try to take one of our own and post it soon!**

Wow, did we stumble upon a winner or what? As you might or might not know, the Wine Gal & Wine Guy's wine of choice is Carmenere (I can't believe this is the first time we have reviewed this type of wine....it's our favorite....we also like Carmen Carmenere, Casa Silva Carmenere, and one other...can't think of the name right now). Well we saw one at Trader Joe's in Indianapolis and decided to give it a shot. It was the best $6 we ever spent on wine. The Maniña Carmenere is definitely our favorite type of Carmenere that we have come across yet. All of the Carmeneres we have tasted are from Chile, and from what we've read, we believe that is the only country that produces this wonderfully delicious wine.

We regret to inform you that we did not take tasting notes right away, and we drank this about 2 weeks ago so the exact flavors are not on the tip of our tongues, so to speak! However, we did find a similar review of this wine on the web, so some of the information below has been "borrowed" from that review. We apologize for the incomplete review. Next time we find this wine we'll update the post. But for now, here goes...

Date tasted: Sometime in early April 2006
Winery name & location: Maniña Vineyards, Maipo Valley, Chile
Grape/blend: Carmenere
Vintage: 2004
Taste: full-bodied, herbaceous, spice, hints of fruit, quite smooth.
Thoughts/info from wine label: The wine label reads, "This Carmenere is full bodied with generous fruit flavors and an intriguing spice, found only in Carmenere." While we didn't notice as much of the fruit flavors, the bottle is right on when it describes the "intriguing spice". It's a spice that will keep you coming back for more!

The alcohol content of this wine is 13.5%.

Bottom line: go out and buy this wine NOW. It will not disappoint.

Below is our rating for this wine:

Wine Gal's Five Grape Tasting Scale: OOOOO
Wine Guy's Five Grape Tasting Scale: OOOO 1/2
Five grapes and four and a half grapes, respectively...the closest we've come to "the perfect wine".

Link to winery's website: No website