Country: ChileThoughts: This is the first wine we've had from the 2008 vintage. My first assumption was that the wine - unless it was somehow spectacular - needed more aging. But I see Wine Spectator (in one of the few pages on its site you don't have to pay to see) recommends drinking Chilean whites immediately upon their release. I'll trust their judgment, I suppose, but the Carta Vieja needed something different, whether aging, better weather or any other number of factors. I wish I could generalize and say I'm not a fan of Chilean sauvs, but the four examples I had really ran the gamut, from the excellent Cono Sur to the abominable Montes. This fell somewhere in between. The nose was rough and tumble; a little harsh - my wife's word - and earthy and tough from the get-go. Initially, the taste was solid; it began sweet with those telltale earthiness and dryness late. But the wine didn't hold up; by the end, it was all earthiness and all dryness and neither were very appealing. I suppose if I could've found some other flavor that this wine could have hung its hat on, I wouldn't be so down on it. The gold standard in wine, for me, is a drink that's adventurous and so compelling that I have to keep coming back. The key is that it's adventurous and compelling after each taste; with the Carta, it felt like each sip brushed a little more of the surface away, revealing a less-pretty underside.
Do-over? I would not be in favor of it
Final Grade: C+
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