4-13-09

   A Tale of Two Wines

It was the best of wines, it was the worst of wines…  Well, not really, white wine just seems to put me in a literary mood.  We had two Chilean whites. The first one we were somewhat familiar with, Casillero del Diablo Sauvignon Blanc 2008 by Concha y Toro, that we affectionately refer to as “devil wine”.  The little story on the label explains that Don Melchor liked to keep a reserved batch of his wine to himself.  So to discourage strangers from sampling, he spread the rumor that the devil lived in his wine cellar.  Do you suppose that was more effective than say, a guard dog? The other was also a Sauvignon Blanc, but with an even funnier name – (OOPS).  The (OOPS) story is detailed on the label.  In a nutshell, the Camenere grape was transplanted from France over a century ago before the European vines were destroyed by the phylloxera aphid , which apparently was an American import.  Talk about an “oops”!  Sorry about that guys, our bad.  Well, the Chilean growers mixed the Camenere grapes in with the similar Merlot thinking they were the same grape, inadvertently developing the distinctive Chilean  Merlot we know today.  It wasn’t until 1994 that the mistake was discovered. 

We opened the (OOPS) first – a twist - off, which is convenient, but for me lacks the romance of popping a cork.  The color is very pale, almost clear.  At first sniff, I thought it was going to be sweet like a Riesling.  Then I gave it a swirl and sniffed again and the sweetness had diminished considerably.  Another swirl and it seemed to disappear altogether.  Our tasters all detected notes of pear, citrus and some green apple.  It tasted a little heavy on the citrus, but we agreed that it would be a refreshing wine to drink on a hot day sitting by the pool.

The Casillero del Diablo also had a twist - off cap.  It had slightly more color than the (OOPS), but not as much on the nose.  The flavors seemed to us to be more balanced, sporting less citrus and just a bit of vanilla.  While we enjoyed both whites, the vote among our tasters was unanimous in favor of the “devil wine”. 

So with the tasting over, the guests gone home, the bottles in the recycle bin, the glasses washed and drying…  sigh… “It is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.” Yeah, it's really hard to shake this literary mood.

by L.W. of the Brew Crew

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