Concha y Toro Carménère Casillero del Diablo – A Great Steak Wine

$8.99 at Trader Joe’s.

From the bottle:

“More than 100 years ago Don Melchor de Concha y Toro reserved for himself an exclusive batch of the best vines he produced. And, to keep strangers away from his private reserve, he spread the rumor that the Devil lived in that place. Hence the name Casillero del Diablo or Cellar of the Devil.”

Winemaker’s Note: Chocolate, coffee and spice combine with raspberries and blackberries in this Carménère, Chile’s very own grape.

Food Match: Perfect for tasty winter stews or grilled summer barbeques.

13.5% Alcohol

Here at the Reverse Wine Snob, we usually open a bottle of wine at dinnertime, but most of that wine is actually consumed apart from food, usually after dinner. Given this we’re not overly concerned about food pairings. And when we are, we usually determine the food first, and then choose a wine to go with it. Every once in awhile though, we taste a wine and think “This would be so good with…” This is one of those times. And what we have here is a great steak wine.

The 2009 Conch y Toro Casillero del Diablo Carménère has some nice berry notes, is fairly smooth, and has a bit of coffee on the finish. It opened up quite nicely on day 2, so give this one some time to breathe. And it actually did made me crave a steak. We’ll be buying another bottle after all the snow melts and we can fire up the grill!

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