J. & F. Lurton Hacienda Araucano Clos de Lolol 2003

This wine, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere, is a bit tricky for me to rate. I wasn't keen on it; while I thought it has a good cab structure, it didn't seem to have much fruit and I found it to have a harsh edge to it. But on the other hand, I know that I am quite sensitive to some component that shows up pretty regularly in cabernets. I first noticed this while tasting the Alconde Reserva Navarra from last year's Wine Expo with a group of five other people. Four people sat around discussing the fine points of the wine and what flavours they were getting, while two of us just looked at each other thinking "Are they nuts? This wine is crap." At the end of the day, I'm pretty sure that the two of us were tasting a flavour compound that the other four just couldn't taste at all. I think there might be a touch of that here, which accounts for the harshness I noticed, because Kelly liked this wine very much.

Here's her note: "Elegant nose of raspberries, violets, anise, tar, and hint of spruce follows through on palate for long finish with firm tannins. Clear, bright flavours and decent complexity; but flavour profile is somewhat static (in that it doesn't change much over time). Nose became more lush after half hour or so in glass. This wine struck me as European in style - my first guess was Italian."

She scored it 91. Personally, I would have to give it much less than that - much much less. More like 83. Kelly and I usually agree pretty closely about wine scores, which again makes me think I'm tasting something she's not.

Day 2: I served the remaining half-bottle blind to Ted and Kelly. Ted was a fan: "I'd be happy to pay $35, and I'd expect this to be in the $45-50 range." He also scored it 91. Kelly's tasting notes were consistent - raspberries, tar and evergreen - though she downgraded the score to 87. But I think it did suffer a bit in the half-bottle. I still didn't much like it, but it looks like that's just me.

Price: $29.29
Value: 2/5(N); 4/5 (K)
Score: 83(N); 91(K)
Tasted: Sept 2008
ANBL UPC: 635335676318