Good Cheap Wine Guide

 Miguel Torres Tormenta 2007 Cabernet Chile

RATING: Good Enough for Uncle Dave

Amazing how small things can really complicate your plans.  The cork, a Chilean cork. Tough cork!  Frustrating cork!  I will burn it when I get it out.

Chile looks like a rugged place.  The country runs 2700 miles down the western coast of South America.  Defined by it’s Andean mountainous border on the east, sloping into the cold Pacific on the west, an astonishing 150 miles wide at it’s fullest point running from dessert to glaciers (like in Patagonia  - the wilderness not the fleece jacket), Chile is a mystical place with fog, mist, sunshine and, much to our joy, vineyards. 

Is it any surprise then that my first encounter with a wine from the rugged part of the hemisphere began with a struggle?  Just as the native to Chile Araucanians stubbornly fought off the Incas and the Spanish in defense of their land, this cork did not want to let me into the wine.  I was moments away from taking an electric saw to the bottle neck (I know that would have ruined the wine but I would have tasted victory!) when just then the cork, exhausted from the struggle, surrendered.  Finally! The battle won, I began my Wine Quest.

What Others Say: Wineflorida.com

Ruby red with fiery glints. Exquisite varietal aroma on a rich base of leather and licorice with typically silky tannins on the palate and an elegant finish.   

What I Thought: Really enjoyable organically grown grapes wine but probably enjoyed it too young.  (I’m just so impatient!)  A little too acidic but a thoroughly top-of-the-tongue Cab taste.  I so totally dig the description from WineFlorida, “leather and licorice”  wasn’t that a Stevie song??  What the heck does that mean!  Anyway.  I’d go back Jack and do it again.  A Steely song?  Maybe hold onto the bottle for more than a weekend next time. 

Cheers from the Wine Oaf!