Root:1 Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Grape: Cabernet sauvignon (85 percent), syrah (15 percent)

Region: Maipo Valley and Colchagua Valley, Chile

Vintage: 2008

Price: $7.95 per bottle.

In the glass: This Root:1 cabernet sauvignon is a blackish opaque red color with purple streaks, a deep blood-red and inky core, going out into a purplish-red rim definition and medium-high viscosity.

On the nose: There are immediate concentrated black currants, with juicy sorts of brambleberry extract, blueberry jam, candied cassis, hints of mint and tremendous fruit forwardness. There are also underlying notes of new oak, aniseed oil, black tea, herbs, phenolic compounds and cassis fruit-driven minerals.

On the palate: There is big black fruit concentration in the full-frontal attack on the palate with loads of pure chewy, cassis, then peppery spicy black fruit through the middle, going into a powerfully concentrated soft tannic yet restrained long finish.

Odds and ends: Root:1 cabernet sauvignon was again one of the most delicious of all the wines tasted in the big Chilean and Argentinean tasting and beat the others in the quality-price-ratio department. Its name is derived from the fact that the vineyards in Chile never had the dreaded root louse Phylloxera, which was responsible for destroying most of Europe’s vineyard at the end of the 19th century. It later destroyed much of Napa Valley’s vineyards in the 1980s and ’90s. Therefore, this is made from fruit coming from the ungrafted original rootstocks that still thrives in Chile. Produced as a meticulous blend from two of the best vineyards in Chile, there is actually 15 percent syrah in this wine, giving it that extra power and color. It should drink well for another four to five years and you can easily enjoy this with a portobella mushroom risotto.

Gil Lempert-Schwarz’s wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89016-0749, or e-mail him at gil@winevegas.com.