Casillero del Diablo Reserva Red Blend – Smooooth And Sweeeet

Revisiting an old favorite and a grilling great from Concha y Toro, the Casillero del Diablo Reserva Red Blend from Chile.

70% Syrah and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon from Central Valley, Chile. The wine is aged in oak barrels for an unspecified amount of time and has 11.46 g/L of residual sugar.

Sample submitted for review. The Casillero del Diablo Reserva Red Blend has an SRP of $12 and can be found for as low as $9. Ready to buy? Check your local retailers. Imported by Excelsior Wine Company.

We’ve been making a concerted effort as of late to go back and revisit some of the more popular wines on the site and update the reviews to the latest vintage. (See here and here for a couple of other recent ones.) In some of these cases, it’s been a long time since we reviewed them – like 6 vintages for today’s wine!

The good news is that this one has held up very well, in fact, we liked it even better than the 2011 which was 60% Syrah, 25% Carmenere and 15% Cab Sauvignon. I’d even venture to say the 2017 is the best version of this red blend from Concha y Toro that we’ve ever tried.

The 2017 Concha y Toro Casillero del Diablo Reserva Red Blend begins with abundant aromas of black fruit with a touch of green pepper, a little anise and some licorice and chocolate notes. The wine tastes very smooth with soft tannins and flavors that mimic the nose with a bit more oak apparent, but there’s still tons of rich fruit. It’s quite a satisfying blend. On the long finish the sweet fruit gives way to more spice, chocolate and licorice. While there’s quite a bit of sweetness on the palate and finish, it handles it well and does the very popular semi-sweet red blend style proud without feeling manufactured.