Echeverria Reserva Merlot 2001 (review)

80 points

Curico Valley, Chile.

Nice red colour. Smoky claret aromas with herbaceousness and coffee, not too deep but attractive. Black cherry flavours, not complex or concentrated, but pleasant; marred by a somewhat overly acidic and short finish. Nice commercial wine.

I'm positive about the future for Chilean wines. They used to be nice, but a bit boring. Now they seem to be gaining in complexity. I haven't tasted any Chilean wine that suffers from over extraction - yet. I'd rather spend a $ on Chilean cabernet/merlot than Californian; they are better value, but also reasonable balanced and unpretentious. And some really impressive.