My son and I had dinner last night at one of our favorite restaurants, Le Mannequin Pis, and Bernard offered the 1999 Terrunyo Carmenere by the glass. I had two glasses, one from a bottle that had been opened a couple of hours earlier, and one from a freshly opened bottle.

I was not overly familiar with Chamernere and found it to be very much like a Merlot with an undertone of peppers and a very faint hint of eucalyptus. The first glass, from the bottle that had been open for a couple of hours was much more open and had smoothed out some. Medium bodied and somewhat tannic with a touch too much oak for my taste and slightly sweet(!), it still went well with the hanger steak I was eating.

The second, form the newly opened bottle was much tighter, and tasted more of oak. It seemed somewhat disjointed and didn't have much of a fruit forward feel. As it opened up in the glass it came together some and became much more enjoyable and the tastes of plum began to push past the taste of pepper.

I don't know that I would go out of my way to buy this wine, but it was not too bad. I would give it an 86 or so, but mainly because it was not particularly to my taste. My son didn't care for it much at all.