At the same time, spurred on my the growing awareness in Europe and North America of Chile as a legitimate wine producer, foreign investment flowed in intent on producing high-end, prestige wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, to rival, in terms of image, quality and inflated price, the best of California.

These have not generally been a great success, at least in my kitchen.

Somewhere between these two extremes lurk a group of wines all too easily overlooked. These are wines that get the quality/price equation right. My favorites among the reds at least, tend to be the Cabs. So, if you want a good, every day Cab that doesn’t taste like over-ripe California cola wine, or unripe Bordeaux acid juice, Chile is often a good place to look.

One fine example, this week’s Five Star Nick’s Wine Of the Week, is the Carmen Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon, Maipo Alto 2009 ($15)

Whoever put this wine together knew what they were doing – there’s an abundance seductively ripe red-fruit up front finely balanced by a refreshing acidity along with a judicious use of oak, and all given a bit of real structure by the presence of fine, mellow tannins.

Don’t look for a lot of complexity at this price, just enjoy it for what it is – a delightful, unpretentious every-day red that can be drunk with everything from pizza to barbecue.

+++++++

To find this wine near you try Wine Searcher

+++++++

Listen to Nick’s WineCast!

It was a vertical of six vintages of Marchesi di Barolo Riserva going back to 1970, and was conducted by the property’s owners, the delightful Ernesto and Anna Abbona, aided by their equally charming adult children, Valentina and Davide.

The event was to mark the launch of the partnership of Marchesi di Barolo with their new US importer, Frederick Wildman, and not coincidently, to promote their wines. In this cause the Abbonas had raided their 40,000 bottle library to facilitate a series of eye-catching tasting.

The wines presented were the 2003, 2001, 2000, 1990, 1980 and 1970. To offer such a rare gems was a shrewd move – the opportunity to taste wines such as these comes along rarely, and it certainly caught my attention. But remarkably the Abbonas have also made the ’03, the ’01 and the 2000 available in sufficient quantities to be sold at retail.

These are old-fashioned wines with a true sense of place, of the soil. They also show marked vintage variations – no bland homogeneity here. In this sense they reminded me of Bordeaux’s of old, before they became internationalized.

The standout was undoubtedly the magnificent 1970. A beautiful, fully mature Barolo that even at 41 years was still fresh and vibrant, with only minimal loss of color at the rim.

Unhappily this glorious wine is not one of the offerings available for purchase but interested Barolo lovers should not despair – the other great vintage of the tasting, the Marchesi di Barolo Riserva 2001 ($105) is, and thus is this week’s Five Star Nick’s Wine of the Week.

On first tasting it I was struck, like a splash of cold water on the face first thing in the morning, by the bright, zingy, fruit-based acidity. It reminded me of June strawberries, simultaneously fruity and tart, and could have been bottled six months ago, so alive is it, so brimming with vitality. And this is key – although the wine is already ten years old it has decades of life before it, and could very well mature into something not unlike the wonderful 1970.

With these sorts of expectations the wine, even with a three figure price tag, hardly seems expensive, especially when you consider the satisfaction you are laying down for your old age, or perhaps even your children’s future drinking pleasure.

+++++++

To find this wine near you try Wine Searcher.

+++++++

Listen to Nick’s WineCast!

The stand-out: the 1970. Forty one years old, and still fresh and vibrant, not loosing a step, redolent of sous bois aromas and flavors, along with a granite-like minerality. A stunning wine.

Watch out for a Nick’s WineCast and Nick’s Wine Of The Week from the same tasting, a wine that you can actually buy.

I know it’s spring in NY, despite the weather being more appropriate to early March than late April, because the first samples of 2011 rosés are beginning to show up at my door.

Forget swallows, this is a real harbinger of summer.

Some rosés, typically those from Provence, are pale in color, light and fresh, and perfect for the pool, but they lack weight so really don’t work with food. On the other hand there are the darker, more substantial versions, typically Tavel rosés, where these attributes are reversed.

But sometimes you encounter a rare pale rosé possessed of real substance, and one such winner is this week’s Five Star Nick’s Wine Of The Week, the Beckmen Vineyards Grenache Rosé 2011 ($18) from the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County.

There’s something special going on here, something one occasionally encounters in Provence rosés, where you have the best of both worlds – that delightful pale freshness along with an intensity of flavor that makes it, if not a serious wine, then at least an interesting one.

Steve Beckmen

And in the case of the Beckmen rosé this all resulted from some highly unusual weather.

As Steve Beckmen told me “We had a lot of frost issues in the early spring that year resulting in low yields and late ripening grapes that they didn’t pick till November.”

“So, I don’t know, maybe the low yields, the smaller than normal clusters, we were kinda blown away by that too. We had a similar comment ‘wow, it’s not very dark but man, it’s got a lot of flavor.’ It’s kind of an interesting wine, but not something we could replicate every year.”

So avail yourself of this unique opportunity to load up with a delicate yet intensely flavored California rosé as this beguiling combination doesn’t come along that often, and when it does it usually costs a lot more than this gem.

+++++++

To find this wine near you try Wine Searcher

+++++++

Listen to Nick’s WineCast!

They are the product of his ongoing collaboration with his brother, Marchese Piero Antinori, and come from Tenuta di Biserno in Maremma, the coastal region of Tuscany.

The family have a pretty good track record in the area: their cousin, Nicolò Incisa owns Sassicaia, Piero makes a series of fine wines at Guado al Tasso, and Lodovico was the founder of Ornellaia and Masseto. The latter two, after a series of complicated and not particularly edifying corporate missteps, wound up being owned by Frescobaldi.

Undaunted Lodovico threw himself into a new project, the production of Cabernet Franc-based wines at Biserno, a little to the north of Bolgheri the town, and just outside Bolgheri the DOC.

Cabernet Franc was an unusual choice. The varietal is best known as a blending grape in Bordeaux, and for single-varietal reds in the Loire, so I asked Lodovico about this decision. It turns out that there were two reasons to pick Cabernet Franc. The first was marketing, to separate Biserno from the ever-increasing number of Cabernet Sauvignon-based Maremma Super-Tuscans.

“I thought that the Cabernet Franc would be probably the element of distinction between the Bolgheri tradition of Sassicaia, which emphasizes Cabernet Sauvignon, and creating a new style.”

And then there was the characteristics of Cabernet Franc itself.

“I think because it gives to the wine finesse, and I like the finesse in wine after all.”

And what does Cabernet Franc bring to Biserno that differentiates it from the other wines of Maremma?

Lodovico Antinori

“The lack of aggressiveness, of greenness that Cabernet Sauvignon can have when it’s young….to have a wine earlier drinkable, the Cabernet Franc seems to be aging a little bit quicker, tannin gets metabolized quicker, the tannins are less aggressive than the Cabernet Sauvignon.”

“It gives the wine not extra strength but a lot of equilibrium and balance…..you have a wine that’s lean, not too opulent and doesn’t have excesses, it gives the blend linearity and complexity. It’s not a heavy varietal.”

There are three tires of wines from Tenuta di Biserno: Il Pino, the second wine, Biserno, the estate wine, and the limited edition luxury bottling, Lodovico. I have picked as this week’s Five Star Nick’s Wine Of The Week the Il Pino di Biserno 2008 ($80) because it’s a perfect example of Lodovico’s reasoning for choosing Cabernet Franc. It’s lighter, fresher and more accessible at this young age than a comparable Cabernet Sauvignon, but is in no way lacking in flavor.

There’s a fine minerality and plenty of fruit – blackberries in particular – but it’s not ponderous or particularly tannic, and it works superbly with food. There’s a lovely balance here, with a fine acid structure lending a harmonious freshness. It’s entirely drinkable now even if a bit rambunctious, but will continue to mellow and acquire gravitas for at least a decade.