We reviewed the CARO Rothschild/Catena collaboration on this site a while back, and found that the $50 wine was one of the best bottles we’d ever opened. Fortunately for us, this is not the only joint effort between these two vineyards. A much less expensive version of the CARO called Amancaya can be found for between $15 and $20.  Is it worth the money?  Absolutely.

Let’s just get this out of the way: the Amancaya is a fantastic wine.  While I don’t have the CARO sitting next to me to compare, the Amancaya feels its equal in every way.  Smooth and creamy, well balanced and absolutely full of flavor, it is a wine that is to be savored.  Deep, dark fruit flavors with plenty of chocolate and coffee accents, the Amancaya is excellently controlled, with no one flavor dominating, and no off flavor ruining the experience – it is, simply put, an excellent blend where both the Cabernet and Malbec come together in an exceptional way.

To me, there has to be something special about a wine in order to give it a score higher than a 92 – either it must offer something new and unexpected, or it should be of such an amazing value that I simply can’t score it lower and be fair. In this case, the Amancaya has done both.  It has matched the excellent characteristics of its more expensive cousin, while at the same time redefining what an excellent blend can be.

Score: 95