Frontera, After Midnight Red Wine

Chile is a great region for bargain-priced wines and hence I find myself reviewing a lot of wines from Chile. Some of them are great and some of them are meh! But what do you expect when you’re tasting the cheap stuff. And at $5.99 per bottle, this one is about as cheap as it gets these days.

It comes from Concha Y Toro, the biggest wine company in Chile. Their “Frontera” brand is one of the lowest cost brands they produce.

The concept behind the name of this wine, After Midnight, is the grapes are harvested after dark when the cool temperatures help preserve the grapes. I certainly like the idea of that, as the thought of grapes baking in the sun between harvest and fermentation isn’t so appealing.

But then I’ve never harvested grapes for winemaking myself, so what do I know about harvesting grapes? I do, however, have plenty of experience at tasting wines and that’s what I shall do.

The nose of this wine smells very familiar, much like many other ultra-cheap red wines I’ve had in the past. There’s a sweetness to the aromas, offering loads of plum, strawberry and some blackberry aromas. There’s also a good dose of vanilla and other spices. The palate delivers a bit of that sweetness too. Yes, this one makes me say, “hello, residual sugar.” The fruit flavors on the palate are mostly plum and strawberry. There’s not much depth beyond that. It could use a little more acidity to offset the sweetness. The tannins are pretty mild. It finishes with lingering strawberry flavors.

I can tell you from experience that palates change over time. And I have noticed over the years of tasting and talking to others about wine that younger wine consumers in their 20’s tend to be more drawn to sweeter wines like this one. If you like sweeter reds, you may enjoy this one. Personally, this one is not for me.

Wine: Frontera, After Midnight
Variety: Red blend
Vintage: 2015
Alcohol: 12%
Rating: 74
Price: $5.99
Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.