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I'm a bad bad founder. I didn't taste this wine until tonight, even though I've had it lined up for a while now, and this is going to be a quickie review… not what I typically like to do for Wine Blogging Wednesday.

This month's edition, hosted by "Big Cincy" Tim Lemke of Cheap Wine Ratings, focuses on value red wines from Chile, a country I've not explored much in the past. To take the exploration even further, I decided to taste a Carmenere, a grape that I don't taste very often. In fact, I can't remember the last time I tasted it.

You can learn more about the grape over at Wikipedia.

This bottle, which retails for around $15 is Cono Sur's 2007 Carmenere. Everything I've read suggests that Carmenere is best in its youth, so this wine's relative youth wasn't a worry.

Extremely dark in the glass, the nose is pretty straightforward with blueberries, cassis, and a little bit of dark chocolate. With some time in the glass, a coffee-chicory aroma peeks in as well. Medium-bodied and much softer than I expected, the tannins are fine-grained and provide little structure. The flavors, which match the nose closely, also feature some black pepper spice as well.

I think that lovers of soft, fruity reds will like it and with the spice and chocolate, there is a little more going on here. Not really my cup of tea though.

Thanks for hosting, Tim!