Wine Review - 2010 Intriga Cabernet Sauvignon: Bold And Really Dry Chilean Cab

Intriga Cabernet Sauvignon

We bought this wine at the NSLC Port of Wines Festival in September.  We remembered it as a stand out and it was an award winner.  From the Maipo Valley the Intriga winery has evidently been in operation since 1865.

In the glass it is a very dark wine.  The legs on the swirl are very long and show all of the 14.5% alcohol.  This is purple wine.  We could come up with a garnet or ruby but it is really just dark purple.

This wine has a really warm nose with spice, black currents, and violets dominating.  There is also a good amount of oak in the nose.  When we say oak we mean oak.  There isn't any vanilla to coincide with it just wood.  That stands to reason with the 34 months the wine spent in oak.  If the nose had less of the other notes this would be a downer but as it stands it smells pretty nice.

On the tongue this is a bold, very dry, very tannic wine.  The mid-palate is where we had a difference of opinion.  Shannon felt it was a pomegranate or cranberry tartness and I really just found it a touch bitter.  A little too bitter for my liking.  We did agree that the wine finishes hot and lingers then leaves a clean sensation in your mouth.  It is a really nice holiday wine.  In fact, Shannon said it revived her wine senses, so clearly she is a fan.

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Very dark purple wine.  Enough said.	4.0
Smell (0-5)	Spice and black currents dominate with notes of violets and wood.  Complex and borders on too much wood.	4.0
Taste (0-10)	Bold, tart, tannic wine with an interesting mid-palate that some might consider bitter.  Hot finish that lingers leaving a clean sensation.	8.5
	Total:	16.5 / 20 (82.5%)

At $25 we have high expectations for a wine and mostly this wine follows through.  That darn mid-palate just kept the score from being higher.

Keep on tasting!

Chris & Shannon