~ The Social Diary ~

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by The Social Diary Wine Expert Columnist Gary Parker

Zagat Accoladed

From The Winery:

MONTES PURPLE ANGEL 2005

Intense youthful purple color, typical from concentrated Carmenere. Delicate with hints of chocolate
and cigar box aromas. The Carmenere grapes coming from our Apalta estate provides the
elegance and spiciness. The Petit Verdot (from Apalta) is adding structure and at the same time the
wildness of black berries. This wine is full bodied, with a considerably amount of ripe tannins giving
grip and structure. Mouthfilling with a very long finish. A super wine!

Denomination of Origin: Purple Angel is a blend of 92% Carmenère and 8% Petit Verdot from the
Colchagua Valley.  Of this, half of the Carmenère comes from Montes’ La Finca de Apalta estate,
bringing sophistication and elegance (the Petit Verdot also comes from this vineyard).  The other
half of the Carmenère comes from Montes’ Archangel estate in Marchigue, adding potency and
strength.

Winemaking: Grapes are carefully hand picked. The clusters go through a grape by grape
selection made by hand with a team of 14 people, in which only good fruit is allowed into the tank.
During the 18 months of barrel aging in new French oak barrels, the wine is racked 3 times to get
rid of lees, and allow some oxygen to interfere in the evolution and maturation of this wine.
When the final blend is made, if the wine is totally clear, and have no microbiological pressure,
there is no need for filtration or fining....so the wine goes unfiltered to the bottling process.

Oak Aging: 18 months in new French oak barrels.

Filtering: This wine is not filtered. Unfiltered.

Yield of Vineyard:3,7 tons/hectare (1,9 tons per acre).

Grape Variety: 92% Carmenere, 8% Petit Verdot.

Caseproduction: 6.000 cases of 6 x 750ml.

Cellaring Recommendations: 10 years.

Recommended Serving Temperature: 18o C (17o C – 19o C).

Decanting: Decant for at least an hour for better enjoyment, allowing the wine to open up.

Basic Analysis:
Alcohol   14.5o
PH      3.59 g/lt
Total Acidity (H2SO4)   3.45 g/lt
Volatile Acidity (C2H4O2)   0.59 g/lt
Residual Sugar    2.40 g/lt
Free (SO2)    0.027 g/lt

2005 Purple Angel, Montes
                        Growing Region:.............................................. Colchagua Valley, Chile
                        Varietal Blend:.................................................             92% Carmenère, 8% Petit Verdot
                        Fermentation................................................... 18 Months New French Oak
                        Alcohol Level..................................................             14.5%
                        Winery Price:...................................................             $65.00
                        WineSellar Case Price:................................             $54.99

Notes: For those who know their wines from Chile, there is not much to argue that Montes is on the top of the winemaking heap for producing the finest wines in their country. The “Purple Angel” is totally stunning, and by far and away, the finest Carmenère I have ever had the pleasure to taste.

Appearance: A great package! The purple “stains” on the wrapping paper, the beautiful graphics and purple hues are exquisite. The heavy bottle, even when empty, it feels like something is still in it. The liquid is gorgeous, with black and dark purple/red hues.

Nose: The fragrance was quite restrained for an hour, especially considering the generosity given the palate. Later, it did come forward quite well, and as I was finishing my last drop two hours later, I was realizing focused fruit of ripe blueberry, violets, roasted nuts, barley, cream sherry and vanilla. Oh Man!

Texture: Huge but seamless, this unfined and unfiltered monster does not have the trappings of a big wine. It is silky smooth, very well balanced sweetness to acid, well-integrated tannins, with great depth and richness.

Flavors:  Just unreal, everything that came forward. I couldn’t keep up to write everything down, but here are a few of the more dominant flavors: Fresh blueberry, wild blackberry and strawberry, roasted nuts, dairy cream (and ice cream), root beer and coca cola, smoke, vanilla, brown butter. And oh! Did I mention blueberry?

Serving Suggestions: Buy it! Should last 15 years, easily.

* Gary Parker is the Principal, Founder, Chairman and CEO of The WineSellar Group. From a background of culinary arts, architecture and art, Gary opened The WineSellar & Brasserie in 1988 with a pioneering concept of combining a fine wine shop, a state of the art wine storage facility, and a highly regarded French restaurant named The Brasserie, all under one roof. With its top rated Zagat level cuisine, and Gary Parker's hand picked wine list of 2,500 classic wines, The WineSellar & Brasserie garnered instant notoriety. The wine list has won The Wine Spectator Grand Award (one of the best 100 wine lists in the world) every year since 1988. Gary subsequently created The WineSellar Club and www.winesellar.com, an Internet wine auction site. Gary is recognized as a leading authority in fine wine, and is active as a spokesperson, appraiser, auctioneer and panelist in the industry.

(editor's note - Gary is a former principal owner of Laurel Restaurant & Bar. Gary established Laurel in 1995, which he sold in February 2005).

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Proprietor Gary Parker of the WineSellar & Brasserie says "I consider myself a culinary crusader. I love to provide and promote epicurean pleasures to others through my restaurants, wine shop, and wine of the month clubs."

The Brasserie restaurant has been the recipient of the Wine Spectator Grand Award every year since it opened in 1989. This award acknowledges The Brasserie wine list as being one of the 95 best wine lists in the world today because of its depth and selections.

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