Love the leathery/musty wines. This makes it hard for the SIWBMWCN (Woot Cellars Notwithstanding)to hold. I think it was some of the Judd’s hill that had some of the same characteristics and I thought that was fantastic. Think I’ll wait for other reports to see if they report the same.
Not true! I fed you one while you were here, but you just didn’t notice because it was a restrained, cool-climate, stylistically-loyal Bordeaux blend. And no one associates anything like that with Chile.
The issue with Chilean wine, or at least in my view, is that despite a fair amount of differentiation between the climates in which grapes are grown, there’s very little differentiation in labeling. They’ve only recently started creating individual appellations, and most wines still only identify one of the country’s large administrative regions for their provenance, if that (comparatively, it’d be like American wines labeled “California” or “Washington” and not for blending reasons). Within those regions, a vineyard can be way up in the cool mountains or down in a hot valley.
So while Chilean wines can actually come in a multitude of styles, there’s not an easy way to differentiate between them. Admittedly, it’s more of an excuse than anything (just because a wine is from Carneros, for instance, doesn’t necessarily imply a particular style), but combined with the fact that for most, their only exposure to Chilean wine was to ripe, bomby, hot-climate style grocery store pablum, it’s very easy to assume that all Chilean wine comes in such a style, which is patently untrue. Most does, though, so it’s not a particularly fatal assumption to make. It also probably doesn’t help that Jay Miller is responsible for Wine Advocate’s Chilean reviews, so everything automatically gets a 90 and the tasting notes all read “durrr…blackcurrant yum!”.
I think the comparison to Australia is apt, and without channeling RPM too much, I would argue that Chile is about where Australia probably was twenty or thirty years ago - a relatively new wine country that hasn’t had a lot of time to organize itself, develop unique regional styles, or have a real influx of innovative and adventurous winemakers (though they’re certainly getting there). And in order to build up street cred, they’re flooding the mass market with decent but relatively tame products. There’s a lot of potential in Chile, though, and some sublime growing areas that are ripe for the taking (pun, sadly, intended). I think we’ll probably see a lot of affordable artisan wines being made there in the next decade.
Is this one of them? Oh, I dunno.
I know Ramsay is on the lower spectrum, and I dont think it would be fair to compare since they are from different regions. But how would they compare?
Fabulous first rat! I really enjoyed reading your voyage with this wine.
This one’s definitely tempting as I’ve enjoyed many bottles from Hahn and I like Chilean wines. For the buck I think Chile puts out a great wine, and for those curious about Chilean wines I’d suggest checking out the Root 1 wines. Their cab is young and tastes it, but when I’ve poured it for people I’ve never had them complain about it and thought it was very good for the age and excellent for the price point (can normally find it for around $10). Their Savi has been a little hit or miss with people when I’ve pulled it out, but stronger on the hit. It’s been a long time since I’ve pulled a bottle out, and I can’t quite remember what people didn’t like about it. I really like their chard, which sticks in my mind as having a bit of green apple to it, and their Carmenere is also quite nice.
In for one. The TLC is gone and I need a wine that I “like, not love” for people of similar ilk.
[How good is this deal?](http://bit.ly/hhN0ON" title="How good is this deal?)
Shipping cost is the major factor in this one.
Click the link above for full discount details, links, etc.
I don’t know much about wine other than I like most reds I’ve tried. I haven’t met a cab I didn’t like and when I include my $10 off coupon from my last wine woot being delayed this comes in at under $8 per bottle.
I don’t think I can resist.
Let’s see if I can translate that for you 
In wine terms, you’ve got smooth right on. But “dryness” is actually a sweetness factor (determined by the residual sugar [RS]). A wine is “dry” or “sweet” (or something in between).
What you are experiencing for what you call “dry” is a fascinating little thing called tannin. Tannin makes your mouth feel cottony or chalky, like someone just took a cotton swab and sucked all the moisture out of your mouth. They are generally tamed by time, either in the bottle, in the glass, or in a decanter. Some people really enjoy tannins and go looking for that super-mouth-puckering-punch that they can deliver. They usually end up with purple teeth, purple tongues, and purple lips.
So, this wine is tannic and needs some time to calm down and get some air. Good to know that it DID calm down with some airtime - sometimes that doesn’t happen, and then the wine is just off balance.
Excellent report, spuds!!
So far no mentions of excessive herbaceousness from the Rats. Very promising, especially with mentions of leather. A good leathery Cab is a favorite. It’s actually pretty rare to get outside the fruit/veggie/oak spectrum under $10, so if there’s some additional complexity, that is good news indeed.
Two great Rats! Thank you both!
Fermented Reviews grades it C+. Says it is just drinkable.
What’s interesting is that both of you expressed some trepidation about your qualifications to Labrat, and then both did a really excellent job.
Thank you! I think we all have a real idea about this wine now.
To liska - it sounds as if there was no sign of freezing, correct? 15 deg outside does not mean 15 deg inside the bottle, but that’s well below the danger line, and sounds scary to me.
See what happens when I sleep late, I get 36 comments to read through before I head to the office. Things are moving fast today.
Morning all, I’m still Josh Cairns from Hahn Family Wines, back for another day or three of Wooting. We’ll start to get your questions answered and hopefully pull some of the sitters off the fence into the “in for 1/2/3” side.
Just a couple of quick comments. This wine is Chilean, no shock so far, and was produced and bottled at a facility down there. However, Juan Ho and Barry spent a number of months down in Chile before the bottling working with their crew to make sure you are getting Chilean value with Hahn quality (if you like Hahn, that is a good thing).
Also, I’m very much hoping that pierrec is simply a fan, because if I discover that they are actually one of my people, someone is going to get a talking to. We don’t play that way.
More oenological answers after the break … and coffee.
Welcome, I look forward to some insight and input from the winery.
What’s the stylistic aim here? The price point and ripeness levels seem to point to a wine that is ready to go off the shelf. But one of the Labrats noted drying tannins, which isn’t something I’d expect from a drink now sort of wine.
I don’t think the juice itself froze, though I’m not sure what that would do to a wine to know for sure. It was definitely cold, but still very much liquid with no crystals or sludginess at 11:00am when it arrived. I can’t imagine that if it had been frozen at any point over night that it would have thawed that soon, still in the back of the cold truck.
For what it’s worth, I’ve accidentally frozen wine before (put a half-full bottle in the freezer to cool and forgot about it) with no ill effects upon thawing. In fact, it seemed to mellow it out a bit (it was a somewhat-too-young Pinot). I don’t know what would happen if a full, corked bottle froze, though (I imagine the cork would at least push out a little). You probably wouldn’t want to try aging it after that, but I don’t think it would significantly affect the immediate quality of the stuff.
Moved from France and although I miss home grown wines, wanted to share the wines I´ve experienced since being here. Obviously our wines are more earthy and we get limited amount of wines from foreign regions.-
Joined through facebook and glad to now I have access to all these wines from now on.
au revoir
(facepalm)
I clicked on Cesare’s winery link, and didn’t even think to check the “winery details” section of the item page.
Hahn Family Vineyards was here in August.
Josh - can you give us the percentage of new oak?