The 2007 Terrunyo Carmin de Peumo Carmenere contains 6.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3.5% Cabernet Franc in its blend and spent 18 months in 100% new French oak. A glass-coating opaque purple color, it surrenders a brooding personality marked by notions of sandalwood, smoke, earthy minerals, dried herbs, black plum, and blackberry. Sweetly-fruit, dense, and opulent, this full-bodied, pleasure-bent offering deftly conceals enough fine grained tannin to evolve for 5-6 years and should easily see its 20th birthday in fine form. Both wines are benchmarks for what can be achieved with the Carmenere grape. Cocha y Toro is the largest wine producer in Chile as the above list attests. Remarkably, they are also one of the quality leaders and innovators leading the country forward. The Gran Reserva Serie are wines made from a single vineyard meant to display a particular terroir. The Marques de Casa Concha wines are also sourced from single vineyards but exposed to more new oak and a longer elevage. Some of the finest wines produced in Chile, particularly from the Carmenere grape, are being bottled and sold under the Terrunyo label under the direction of veteran winemaker Ignacio Recabarren.Importer: Banfi Vintners, Old Brookville, NY; tel. (516) 626-9200

About as dense, lush and ripe as you can get without teetering over the edge. Along the way there’s mint, tobacco, cedar and heavy raisin/plum fruit aromas. Big and broad across the tongue, with sweet boysenberry, cassis and chocolate flavors. This is to wine what Guinness Stout is to beer. ——M.S.(12/1/2011)—— 91