Juice

Chateau La Joya Bisquertt 1998 Cabernet Sau-vignon, Colchagua Valley, Chile ($12)I brought most of the rest of this bottle to a party and five people wrote down the name. Why? It's a really nice-drinking wine, as solid as a butter crock. Ripe but not jammy fruit that offers aromas of leather and blackberries, standing solidly on a tannic but not oaky base, all culminating in a very big, muscular finish. There's a distinct vin de pays sort of country roughness to the stuff, but in an appealing way. I only wish there wasn't snow on the barbecue, because it cries out for slightly charred meat.