Weekly Winedown #17 Casillero del Diablo Merlot

Welcome to the Weekly Winedown. Each week I selflessly drink wine for you and offer a review.
Please don’t expect anything professional, I consume a lot of wine but I’m no pro.

The only real ‘rule’ I’m putting in place is that the wine is to be under £8 a bottle. #keepitclassy.

Can you believe we’ve been at this for 17 weeks now?

Seventeen whole weeks and you STILL keep coming back.

What is wrong with you??

I jest – you are clearly readers of taste.

Last week I abandoned you once again to hang about in London for a while.
Pretending I was one of those hipster types.
Unfortunately I wasn’t quite beardy enough to pull off ‘hipster’, I did do ‘verging on middle age cool’ though.
Ok, I did verging on middle age.

Rory had bought me tickets for  The Play that Goes Wrong  at The Duchess Theatre.
It was AH-MAY-ZING.
I honestly cannot recommend it enough. It was clever and hilarious.
I laughed so much harder than a woman who’s had two children ever should.

After that we found a Sam Smiths pub
“Perfect” we thought, “cheap beer in the heart of London” *insert guffaws here*.

Seriously, £8 for two drinks. I know that’s not loads by any stretch of the imagination but given we’d have paid about £4 for those very same drinks here, it was galling.
Clearly they charge the petrol to transport it from Yorkshire.
The congestion charge too!

We also played darts, we wanted to look like locals.
Turns out I’m terrible at darts.

The rest of the time there I was poorly so I managed to ruin our lovely little break.

Order is restored now, we have just completed the final week of the school holidays and it is Friday once again.

I have chosen an old favourite for this weeks winedown, Casillero del Diablo Merlot from Chile.
You can usually get this wine anywhere for under £8 a bottle

Casillero del Diablo or Cellars of the Devil, was my favourite wine brand before I started with this Weekly Winedown of mine.
I thought it would be interesting to revisit it and see where it stands now that I’ve tasted and enjoyed a variety of wines.

Were we on a break or is it actually over?

The label

When I started drinking wine, my prerequisite was a nice label and around £6 a bottle. This was my go to wine. I love the label, it’s simple and the name has a kind of dark brooding vibe. Not so much in English. Sticking to black, red and white on a good quality paper it’s hardly offensive. The addition of the little Diablo logo on the bottle neck just makes it look all mysterious.

Yes, I’m a marketers dream. Do it right and I’m sucked in.
In fact bad adverts and bad labels are my pet peeves.
I digress, this is an attractive label.

The blurb
“A smooth, medium-bodied Merlot that perfectly combines plum and red berry flavours with smoky, cedar wood aromas…Ideal to match with pasta, risotto and lightly spiced red meat dishes.”

Ah risotto, that classic Chilean dish…
Smooth is always a good start. I like smooth though I do prefer full bodied.
Plum and berries could point to either rich or tart. One is preferable but neither unbearable.
I really hope that the smoky, woody aroma carries over into the taste a little.

Casillero del Diablo has won LOTS of awards, it was also my favourite wine for a long while, I even tried to decant a glass back into the bottle in a pub once – that’s another tale.
It has a lot to live up to!

The aroma was really good. A mix of berries and oak.
It bought back many memories, like a hug from an old friend.
Moreso because it had this strange undertone of weed.
It was subtle but a bit odd.

To taste it was certainly smooth, a mellow drink. It started with berries and had a chocolatey surround.
The after taste lingered with chocolate and spice.

I remember why I loved this wine so much.
I don’t think it’s my favourite anymore, but to be honest I can’t afford my favourites unless they’re on special offer.
It seems I have an expensive palate!

This is a pleasant way to end the summer holidays and begin my woes of the return to school.
More importantly the woe of Seth starting preschool.
It’s all in the video below – watch it yeah? YEAH!