The other day I came to my Loft in order to do a review on the 2016 Le Charmel - Sauvignon Blanc from Chile. That plan quickly changed as the wine was so bad that I was only able to take a couple of sips before I had no choice but to dump the rest of the bottle down the drain. The next day I contacted the Wine of The Month Club (
https://www.wineofthemonthclub.com/) which is where I bought the wine from and let them know that I had bought two bottles of the wine and exactly how I felt about it. The employee on the other end appeared very understanding and asked me if I wished to receive a credit for the two bottles or if I wished to pick two other bottles of a different wine instead. I informed her of my preference for two other wines and I let her know that I actually wanted her to choose them, I only asked that they be either Cabernet Sauvignon or Sauvignon Blanc. Around three days later I received a box in the mail from them containing one bottle of each varietal. Today I am reviewing one of those bottles which is the 2018 Yali Sauvignon Blanc from Chile. I am excited to see what this wine has to offer so let's begin.
First up I want to talk about the label of our wine. I thought the front label was very appropriate considering this is a white wine, it was bright and lively and had a Swan on it as well. The back label describes this wine the following way "The wines are friendly, fresh and vibrant.....". To me this is letting me know that the wine is also not meant to cost a lot and that it is an everyday white wine. That being said, I think the label(s) was very fitting as it is a Summer friendly wine, was well thought out and appeared to be taking itself while not too seriously.
Let's talk just a little about the winery now. Yali winery (
http://www.yali.cl/en/#vinos) is actually part of Vina Ventisquero (
http://www.vinaventisquero.com/en/nosotros/) and is the first winery to obtain the ‘Certified Sustainable Wine of Chile’ accreditation for 100% of its vineyards. The Winemaker for Yali wines is
Sergio Hormazábal who is also President of the Chilean Winemakers Association. The wine comes in at 12.5% and cost me $10.
Let's get to the Bouquet of our wine and see whats going on here. First up is a note of Nectarine and Gooseberry, Both of these notes are very nice and come across moderately fruity on the nose. A Green Pepper note comes out on the nose as well. There seems to be a promised hint of Palate sweetness that I believe comes from a Bouquet note of Pear. Last yet not least is a note of Lychee. All in all this is a wonderful Bouquet that would fool you into believing that the wine is from a hotter part of California as it is exposing a wonderfully tropical and fruit forward Bouquet. Last but not least is the fact that I really love this Bouquet.
Moving to the taste of the wine wine on the Palate I wish to tell you that I did detect a bit of Carbonation on the Tongue. Now, this is nothing that will have you thinking that you are drinking a Wine Cooler or a "Spritzer" (hello Mom) but in my opinion it is noticeable. The good thing is that the Carbonation seemed to disappear after a short time and I am certainly glad that
it did as I do not care for it in my real wine but I will accept it in something like a Bartel's
& James Wine Cooler where I happen to enjoy it. Gooseberry is pretty up front and definitely obvious on the opening, it also sticks around on the Palate till the Finish. Peach, Nectarine and Pear, all three combine together for a pretty wonderful presentation. To me the Pear note comes first and brings a nice bit of that Pear sugar with it. The Peach brings a sort of semi brightness to the wine and the Nectarine brings a hair bit of tartness to the wine. A flowery type note comes shinning through here as well as the wine warms up a bit. How about a fresh Honeysuckle type note as well that shines through and is at the perfect sweetness level, not too sweet and certainly not too bland, just right. A note of Honeydew Melon jumps out as a sort of "Carrier Wave" and for those of you involved in radio you will understand what I mean. For those of you who are not involved in radio, I will explain it like this.
The Honeydew (Carrier Wave) is sort of like a base that everything else (the notes) rides on. All of the above mentioned notes are super smooth and without any sugar peaks to them. You taste the fruit and a sufficient amount of sweetness, no doubt but it is after all a hot weather Sauvignon Blanc. Never does the tropicalness level in this wine exceed my threshold or appear to even come close in any way to being too much. Folks, I must end this review now as it is late in the Evening. It is funny how this review went from opening up about talking about a wine that I hope you never got a chance ( 2016 Le Charmel - Sauvignon Blanc) to taste to one that I hope you do get a chance to taste. Let's get to the closing chapter where I put it all together for you.
Okay folks, can we talk? Here is the final deal with this wine. I originally drank this wine really cold and I was going to rate it at 85 points (not good) but as the wine warmed up slightly it developed into a pretty decent wine and I found myself actually beginning to enjoy it. I highly recommend that you do not drink this wine while it is to cold, you will thank me. I actually had this wine in the Freezer to quickly chill for around an hour and a half and when I tasted it, I did not like it as I thought the wine was flat and tasteless, I was highly disappointed. The wine sat on the tasting table as I periodically sipped on it and I soon started to notice the wine opening and beginning to develop rather nicely. As the wine warmed up just a bit
a nice fruit profile began to develop. This wine once it opened and developed was never too sweet and never too bland. That Gooseberry that was strong right away, softened nicely and managed to live together in peace with the other notes. What a difference waiting a short time makes folks. my recommendation is to chill the wine in the Freezer if you are in a hurry to chill it as I was for no longer then an hour and not any longer, you will enjoy the wine and you will believe that you are drinking a California, hot weather expression expression of the Varietal. So, check this out guys. Originally as I said I was going to rate this wine at 85 points which meant a wine that is very simply not worth mentioning in my book or in other words, a wine that needs to be relegated to the dumpster. A wine that I would never consider to be a serious expression of even a decent wine. After the wine developed and opened my rating changed drastically to 89 points which is "a wine that stands out above the average wine. A wine that while not exceptional is near varietal correct and has indeed made its mark on my Palate as well as my memory". Now that, is a huge change. This is a wine that went from one that I would tell you to stay away from to a wine that is now one that I would say to go buy and enjoy.
The Desert Wine Guy
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