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tonight i needed wine. usually, i avoid grocery stores like the plague because the selection is the same boring bottle with an overly-complicated marketing strategy. but it was late, so i had to settle on what my good ol’ local dominick’s could muster. which is a daunting task, to say the least. after scanning about four aisles, i spotted an entry level montes merlot, and got a little excited.

viña montes is one of the premier wineries in chile. they’re famous for montes folly, montes m, and purple angel (which is delicious.) these wines rack up points like a game of skee ball at the county fair, so, i was pretty interested to see what they could serve up in the ten dollar ballpark.

the nose was full of sour cherry and a hint of oak, a touch of alcohol on the back end. this is a total fruit bomb, buckets of over-ripe cherry, and a weird sourness on the finish. i like oak, but it really doesn’t taste like it’s integrated with the fruit.

i noticed the bottle suggested decanting the wine, so i poured another glass and let it sit for half an hour, and i was really quite surprised at the change. the flavors really mellowed out, giving it a bit more evenness. i got a bit of candied raspberry, this time, along  with a more demur sour cherry, and toasted coffee finish, that still carried a little sourness.

i’m saying 85 points because we had some good moments together, but overall it tasted unbalanced, and a tad over-oaked. honestly i’m a bit biased because this big fruity oak style just isn’t my cup o’ joe, but give it swirl and tell me what you think.