Carmenère

Nowadays, Carmenère is considered to be the most famous vine variety of Chile worldwide. However, Carmenère has its own unusual history, the history of an “immigrant” and not everyone knows that France was its birthplace.

Once upon a time, a vine variety grew up far away from cosmopolitan and pulsating Santiago, in Bordeaux. It first became extinct by the attack of insects, afterwards forgotten and finally regenerated in Chile, more than 10,000 km away from its motherland.

In the 19^th century the phylloxera epidemic wiped out almost all vine varieties native to France, forcing winemakers to start from scratch with new plantings of Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Carmenère varieties. Their efforts succeeded but, although almost all strains regenerated, Carmenère could not adapt to the cold spring and autumn rains in Bordeaux and was almost extinct.

Carmenère was reborn and joined the New World via European winemakers who emigrated to Chile around 1850. However, as Carmenère strains were planted beside Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon vines, they were incorrectly considered to be Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Only in the 1990s, a researcher from Montpellier Faculty of Oenology noted that some Merlot produced in Chile “was not exactly Merlot” and at last it was demonstrated that it was Carmenère, a strain that for a century was considered extinct.

Professor Jean-Michel Boursiquot, the man who  “discovered” Carmenère, is an ampelographer and therefore he applied the scientific techniques that can describe the grapes’ varieties in order to guarantee their traceability and authentication, particularly thanks to genetics.

I was pleased to taste a typical blend of 85% Carmenère and 15% Shiraz from Errazuriz Estate in Aconcagua Valley, Chile and therefore share my notes below: