Today is Wine Blogging Wednesday #52 and I am honored to be the host.  For those who don’t know, Wine Blogging Wednesday is a monthly event when wine bloggers from around the world all write about a common theme.  It was all started 51 months ago by Lenn Thompson at Lenndevours with the help of a handful of wine bloggers who were blogging back then — and some of them are still at it today.  I first discovered Wine Blogging Wednesday about two years ago when I was making plans to launch this blog.  From the get go I wanted to be a part of Wine Blogging Wednesday and for me it is a “coming of age” moment to be the host.

The theme this month is Value Reds from Chile.  The criteria is simple: Write about a red wine from Chile that costs $20 US or less.  Some argue that I set the price limit too high, but $20 is the limit I adhere to on this site and even though that was the upper limit, I challenged participants to try to find a real bargain if they could.  Another challenge I put out there was to find a red wine from one of the lesser known regions of Chile.

Since I put the challenge out there to find something from a lesser known region I felt obligated to meet the challenge myself.  And it was quite a challenge.  I went from one wine shop to another looking at all the red wines from Chile and on every one all I saw was Aconcagua, Casablanca, Colchagua, and Maipo — some the most well known wine regions in Chile.  After much searching I finally found one with grapes from Bío Bío, Nomad 2004.  Well, at least 2% of the grapes in this wine come from Bío Bío.  So I guess you could say that I barely met the challenge.

I also find it interesting that this is a 2004 with grapes from Bío Bío, as that was a particularly rainy year in that region, which posed challenges for producers.

Nomad was produced by Corpora, a producer with a number of vineyards throughout Chile—including significant properties in Bío Bío.  The winemaker was T.J. Evans, who spent three years working in Chile but is now at Domaine Carneros in Napa, CA.  This wine appears to be somewhat of a special project by Evans as it combines grapes sourced from a number of regions in Chile.  It’s 75% Cabernet Sauvignon from Maipo Valley, 16% Syrah from Cachapoal, 7% Carmenere from Maipo and 2% Malbec from Bío Bío.  I don’t expect you’ll come across much of this wine as only 1,100 cases were produced.

A deep, almost opaque crimson color is the first clue that this is going to be a rather big wine.  There is good intensity in the nose with a nice balance of earthiness and fruitiness.  Blackberry, plum, tar, leather and subtle mint is the best way I can describe the bouquet.  The palate is fairly big, but it’s not overly big as I thought it may be from the aromas. It has abundant ripe fruit with blackberry, cherry and plum flavors.  And there’s a bit of cocoa on the finish.  There’s a slight bitterness from the tannins, which is my only real complaint.  Overall, it’s a decent wine for the price.  It’s good, but not one that makes the “I need to give a bottle of this to all my friends” list.

Wine: Nomad
Variety: Red Blend
Vintage: 2004
Alcohol: 13.7%
Rating: 87
Price: $13.99

Check back here in a few days when I’ll have a summary of all the participants of todays Wine Blogging Wednesday so that you can discover more Chilean wines and more great wine bloggers.  Cheers!