Wines News & People
Carménère
Wine Style:
A full-bodied wine with lots of fruits, spices, berries, smokes and earth best enjoyed young.
Flavors:
Origin:
Chile
Found:
Chile only
Carmenère is yet another grape that was eventually exiled from the Bordeaux blend. In the late 1800’s, Carmenère was brought over to Chile from France, and it never turned back. For a while, Chilean growers thought this grape was Merlot and labeled their wines as such. But in the early 1990s, thanks to DNA testing, vineyards were revisited and the grapes correctly labeled, and Carmenère was discovered to be the backbone of many Chilean wines.
Perhaps you may still find minute plantings of Carmenère in France, as well as a few other wine growing regions, but you’ll find most bottling of this variety in Chile. With Carmenère, Chileans are producing wines with good, plumy fruit, like Merlot, and firm structure, similar to Cabernet Sauvignon. The grape kicks in a heady dose of pepper and spice, which helps distinguish it from other varietals in Chile.
Further Reading:
Wikipedia
MSNBC
Houston Wine
Wine Pros
Dallas Secret Wine
Berry Bros
Appellation America