All three wines today are noteworthy but for different reasons.

1) Louis Bernard, Cotes-du-Rhone-Villages, 2006 (France) - This was a $12 wine with a sign on it that Robert Parker consistently scores these in the high eighties or higher every year for more than a decade.  It's good.  Not great but good.  There's nice fruit and decent acidity, which is exactly what you'd expect from a Rhone wine.  And the price is surprisingly competitive for a French import.  I'll score this 6 out of 10 for upper average, and I'll say that although you won't be blown away by this wine if your intent is to have a staple on hand to enjoy with dinner at home this is a good value to latch onto.

2) Crucero, Carmenere, 2006 (Colchagua Valley, Chile) - This is the latest we tried in the after hours wine sampling group at work.  Really good stuff.  It's rich and smooth with a nice texture and a preponderance of cherry and vanilla.  I could see some comparison to a nice Merlot but in this case the sample was much better.  Personally I thought I tasted some smoke but no one else in the group did.  Clearly a quality wine, and probably the only one of the three I'm reviewing today which I would go out of my way to find again and/or to give as a gift.  I'll go 7 out of 10 for above average (not a shabby score from me).  And I just want to add at the end of this review that I've tried a number of Chile wines in the last year and I haven't had one yet which I'd give a lower than average score to.  Cheers to Chile.

3) Mas de la Dame, La Stele, 2001 (Les Baux de Provence, France) - According to the internet Mas de la Dame sits on a truly picturesque and historic chateau estate dating back to the 16th century (although the winemaking there is using 40 year old vines).  This is the 2nd wine I've reviewed from there, the first (going way back to the beginning of this blog) scored a 5 for lower average but had the curious distinction it was very astringent (made me thirsty).  Now this other wine, La Stele, was on sale at a wine store a really like (part of a stock of French wines they were rotating) and had a sign insisting it was a real steal.  I'd say this one is decent and balanced, was a little more fruit forward than classic French wines, and seemed to have a modern Syrah influence to it's style.   From a flavor standpoint I'll give it a 6 out of 10 (upper average) so it didn't blow me away but it clearly was quality.  However, the curious thing with this wine is I swear it had a more pronounced vascular effect on me (it really got my blood flowing).  Even the following morning I could still feel it.  Interesting.  Neither wine I tried from this vintner overly impressed me, but both seemed to have some unique attributes that set them apart from other wines.  I think I'll need to keep my eye open for more from them to see what other surprises they may have.  By the way the lable has a quote apparently from Nostradamus which inspired the winery name: "un jour, la mer recuvrira la terre et s'arretera a la Stele du Mas de la Dame".  I have no idea what that means so if someone can translate it for me some day I'd be interested.  I can make out ocean recovers the land at the beginning but I don't know the rest.